The Unspeakables and The Untouchable
by Lindsay J. Lewis
Summary: Harry, Hermione and Ron have all grown up and graduated.None of them have seen eachother for 3 years and now Harry needs his two best friends to help him. Review!
1. Story of my life

Chapter one

The story of my life

Hermione

Oh there was the alarm clock again… ringing and ringing endlessly… Now that you think about it… how long could a person put up with it? A few hours? A day? A month? Well after a month you'd probably crack. She decided to get up and not try finding out how long it would take to finally lose it so getting out of bed and putting her bathrobe on seemed like a reasonable thing to do. After doing so she grabbed a case file from her desk and with that, headed for the kitchen.

As she stepped into the kitchen, that was as neat as a kitchen could be (well duh! It's Hermione we are talking about here), her cat came to welcome her. After Hermione had patted its head for a few times her cat walked away from her and hopped onto the table, looking at her with an accusing face.

"Oh come on! I come home and all I get is this accusing look? I'm sorry all right? I can't do anything if Smith decides to act like an "$$hole once again! He just can't understand that I have a life aswell. Wait…I don't…I'm nuts. Totally and completely nuts. I'm standing here in the middle of the kitchen talking to my cat. No offence there Chiz, but you are a cat, let's not forget that."

She drifted away, thinking about the events that had taken place in the last few days.

Hermione just hated her business trips. The little taverns or motels her boss would usually accommodate her were less than welcoming. The places were dirty and more than often Hermione found that she was thinking if her sheets had been changed after a couple had had their roll in the hay between them. Hermione kept telling herself that it was just her imagination but she just couldn't shake it off. Mr. Smith however, her boss, who had changed his name after seeing a muggle film, thought that 'if it doesn't kill you, it only makes you stronger'. Well Hermione, on the other hand, totally disagreed with him in that department. Her version of it would be that– if it doesn't kill you, it gives you insomnia.

Overall Hermione just couldn't understand how she had ended up with a boss like Smith. After her supreme school years, many people thought that she would accept the wonderful job and the heavenly salary at the Ministry assisting the Minister of Magic that was offered to her…but she didn't. To the happiness of many envious Ministry workers she didn't. Instead she joined the Magic worlds FBI – The Unspeakables. The job that was offered to her was crappy and she knew it. But she was hoping to work herself up to something better. If you thought that after the years that she had spent at Hogwarts with the famous Harry Potter and the adventures that came with it as natural as breathing, made her want to stay in her nice little safe world of books and knowledge forever, you were wrong. Instead Hermione wanted action of some kind. Ofcourse she had pondered about the amazing offer from the Minister but had finally refused.

In the world of spies she had started from scratch. Making coffee, sorting old files, keeping equipment in order, writing letters. With the three years that had passed she had made it to the agent status. Actually she was one of the top-shelve agents by now.

This was what she had first thought about when joining the agency but ofcourse…it wasn't quite as she had imagined it. Well to be quite exact – the boss wasn't quite what she had imagined. Other than that - she was fine.

It seemed, to Hermione at least, that Smith was determined to pick out the worst of assiments just especially for her. Not the ones that were most dangerous, but the ones that no one else, for some odd reason, wanted to take on. Things like making peace with the giants, the routine inspection of Azkaban and long boring conferences about safe witchcraft and wizardry were her usual line of work. Well, things always didn't seem to "run smoothly" however. The last peacemaking with the giants had ended with Hermione running as fast as she could and shouting hexes to her stalkers over her shoulder as fast as her lips could move. After she had escaped with all of her limbs still attached to her body, Smith had sent her a Howler! A HOWLER!

That had most certainly been the most embarrassing day in the life of Hermione Granger.

You appear at work, happy as you could be to see another day, and then you get a howler! Well, if Smith had sent it to her house, but no! He had to send it to the office! For everyone to see and hear that she had seriously…well how could she put it subtle…done badly?

After the Howler had finished its furious outbursts, Smith poked his head through the doorway and called Hermione to his office. When the door had closed, the same kind of voice saying the same kind of things started yelling again. The whole office was behind the door, listening. Hermione knew it and Smith was no exception on that part. He just kept yelling and yelling endlessly, saying the same things with different words and phrases. Finally he had to catch his breath and Hermione took the advantage to say, "Wanna tell me something I don't know?" Giggles were heard from behind the door.

This was not the usual behaviour of Hermione Granger but since she saw that Smith doesn't respect her or the work she does, she just couldn't help but saying that. Respect comes naturally. If a person respects you, you respect them. Smith had probably never heard of such a thing because he looked at Hermione with an evil look on his face and said, "Miss Granger you are suspended for a week." Hermiones face showed no feelings whatsoever and she announced, " Will somebody thank the Higher Powers for me." Smith did nothing but glare at her because he realised now that he had to send somebody else to take care of the "dirty work".

A/N by Chiz I mean Chizpurfle. For more information see your copy of 'Magical beasts and where to find them' by Newt Scamander. Hermione named her cat this because when she found it in a lonely alley the kitten had a lot of fleas and chizpurfles on it.


	2. You have got a fan

Chapter 2

You've got…a fan

Harry

Hello my friend

Remember me? But ofcourse you do. How could you forget about what happened at the last Quiddich game…was it as good for you as it was for me? Well, it probably wasn't…falling that high…but you didn't get hurt though'…now did ya? I went through so much trouble…I tried and tried and tried…and what do I get? Nothing. All you do is laugh at me. If you wouldn't have reached for your wand in time… it would have been a great fall…Just think about it…The Great Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. The one that even The Dark Lord Himself couldn't take… Yes. I would have been famous… I would have been remembered…

Harry folded the letter and looked at his assistant.

"Well here's another piece of regular mail from my dear friend who shall be unnamed."

"Sir, I…"

"How many times have I told you to call me Harry? Colin does…Justin, for God sakes we went to Hogwarts for 7 years. We were in the same Herbiology class. Did you call me Sir then? That's weird 'cause I don't really recall that… my lousy memory and me. You probably did, right?"

"Alright. Harry."

"Now was that so hard for you Justin? 'Cause if it was then I too, can call you Sir and all will be swell."

"Harry come on! Let us get to business or how shall I call it? We have got to do something about these… letters. They keep coming in. If it were just letters…but they are not. He says clearly that he made it happen. Besides, people don't just fall off their brooms because of nothing. Have you thought about what he wants? Maybe you should just give in. You know, get away from all of the attention for a while… you know. Lay low?

"No. I want to keep playing. I don't want him to think that I'm afraid of him. And besides if I step down now I will miss The Quiddich World Cup. You know how important that is to the team. Besides if I did anything of that nature Wood would come here personally and hex me."

"Harry…"

"No Justin. I said I want to do exactly the opposite."

Justin gave Harry a face that very much resembled to the face of a kid asking his mom for candy.

"You are not the head of my security."

"Yeah well I'm not and I'm most certainly pretty unqualified to make any decisions concerning in the matter but…"

"So don't make any decisions concerning in the matter," Harry cut in.

"…But I think it's time you go to see a professional of some kind."

"What do you mean? Get the guy a therapist or something? Can you order them from a catalogue or something? 'Cause if so I'll take two." Harry joked.

"No. Hire a couple of people to protect you."

"What? Am I hearing alright?"

"Probably. Though' I don't know when you last saw your doctor about your ears." Justin said stupidly.

"Uh…my ears are fine..." Harry said, then fell deep in thought.

"Well that's good. Least got one problem off our backs."

After a few minutes of silence, what seemed like forever to Justin, Harry was still thinking hard and looking at the carpet, not saying a word.

"Hmm…Harry…how about it?"

Just then, on the exact moment Colin walked in. "Hey everybody! Why so down?"

"Harry got another one of these"; Justin said waving the letter in his hand.

"Uh…umm…Harry? I really think you should do something about this… It's getting really creepy…"

"That's what I told him."

"Yeah…Umm…Harry?"

Harry looked up to the both of them, then said; "I'll contact The Ministry…see if they can find me somebody trustworthy."

Justin and Colin both were sad to see their friend so devastated. He might have not shown it, but he was devastated. He almost dragged his feet after him as he walked out of the room and headed towards his room.

"Hey Harry!" Coin called after him.

"What," said the one being called after.

"I have an idea." Harry walked back to his two friends/employees with curiosity, mixed with lots of other emotions, in his face. Colin continued, "Look, Harry…I know you don't want a bunch of strangers here, searching everybody who comes through the door…then why not ask your two best friends?" He said smiling.

Harry's eyebrows rose so high that neither of the others thought it was possible. "You two? Protect me? I'm sorry guys and don't get this the wrong way or anything but…"

"Not us, stupid. Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger. I hear they work for the Ministry but I'm not quite sure which department though'… There are things in the Daily Prophet about them sometimes… saying that Hermione messed up with the giants or that Ron got some Dark Wizards locked up in Azkaban again… so since they never mention their departments I take it that they work for The Unspeakables…"

"Colin…." Harry said in a voice so threatening that Justin who was standing next to Colin got Goosebumps "…that's your best idea yet", Harry said grinning from ear to ear.

After leaving his two friends to their tasks, Harry left for his room and tried to think of a good beginning to a letter. A letter, which was to be written to his best friend. Or to a man, who used to be his best friend. Harry knew that Ron was going to help him, but he could not do it all by himself. He needed help, and would he come if it meant that the help he needed was going to be Hermione Granger?

Thanking beforehand,

B


	3. Flashback

Chapter 3

¤

Harry looked back to the events of their last days at Hogwarts. There were the exams. It was late at night and the Gryffindor Common Room was almost empty. Harry himself was doing his best to study Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Herbiology at once, when a certain brown headed girl stormed in, crying. She ran towards the girls staircase, sobbing. Harry got up quickly and caught her by the arm.

"Hemione what's wrong?"

She didn't answer but kept crying. Harry took her by the arms and shook her.

"Hermione what happened?"

"Its…sniff…Ron…He…sniff…is going with Lisa."

With that she ran up the stairs. Only moments later the portrait hole opened and in came Ron. He was breathless from running and gasping for air he said, "'Mione?"

"She went to her dormitory."

Ron almost darted off after her, but Harry stopped him in his tracks and made him sit down.

"Ron…What did you say to her?"

"Nothing…I…just…" He looked down at his shoes and mumbled, "I chickened."

"What!"

"It's just that…."

"What did you do?"

"Well I was going to ask her to go out with me and I asked her to see me over at the Trophy Room tonight after she came from the library. And you know how late she comes from the library these days. Well she told me to meet me there at 11 o'clock. So there, I am…waiting for her when I hear giggles… So I saw her and Dean coming up the stairs…"

"And…?"

"Well then…they…."

"They what?"

"They…hugged…and…Dean probably came here, right?" Harry nodded.

"Well Hermione came to the Trophy Room to meet me…and…I thought that she and Dean…so since Lisa had asked me today if I would go with her…and I said I'd think about it 'cause I didn't want to blow her off right away…and I thought that Hermione was going with Dean…and I thought I'd…Oh Bloody Hell! Who am I kidding here? I wasn't thinking, all right! I told her that I was going with Lisa and she ran away crying.

"Oh My Good God!" Harry groaned and let his head fall on his hands. "You guys are impossible you know that? God…its been 4 years…4 Goddamn LOOOONG years and you still can't say it to her? God…God…God…God! Before you two go to the ball together hell will freeze over or Voldemort will turn good."

With that he gathered his things and headed for their dormitory. Before closing the door, he mumbled a quiet 'goodnight'.

When Harry woke up the next morning, he saw that Ron had left already. At first, he thought that he had slept in because usually it was Ron who was the last to get up in their dormitory but as Harry looked around the room he realised that everyone else was still asleep. He got dressed, got his stuff and went down to the Common Room. He had hoped to find Ron there but instead he found Hermione.

She was studying for their Potions exam that was supposed to start in less than…3 hours. Harry panicked. He was certain of the fact that Snape would do anything in his power to flunk him and so he sat down in an armchair near the fireplace and opened his book. Hermione turned her head quickly making sure that Ron wasn't with him and mumbled something quickly that sounded like 'goodmorninghowsyourstudyinggoing'. Harry looked at her eyes that were red from crying and said: "I really think that you should talk to Ron."

"No", came a sad but sure answer.

"Hermione this is all a big misunderstanding."

"Let's not talk about this anymore, shall we? Have you got a date for the Graduation Ball yet?"

"No. I went with Cho last year…big mistake on my part…what's pretty on the outside doesn't necessarily have to be pretty on the inside…If you can keep a secret…I wanted to with Gin this year…"

Hermione turned after hearing her friends name being named.

"But she said that she wasn't interested. I should have gone with Gin last year…while I had the chance…But no. I was a stupid git and said, with pride, that I had asked Cho and was going with her…"

"Harry…there are only two days to the Ball…let's go together…I would have wanted to go with Ron but…" She turned away to hide her tears. "…If you haven't got anybody else in mind…It would be just as good to go with my best friend"

"Yeah sure, why not." Harry said. He turned his attention to his Potions Book just as the Portrait hole opened and Ron came in.

"'Mione? Can I talk to you a sec?"

She didn't respond. Just got up and left through the portrait hole with him.

Harry waited anxiously. He desperately wanted them to make up. His two best friends…when had they turned into something more than friends, he hadn't noticed...well by the July Ball it was obvious anyway. That was weird, he thought. Two of the closest people to him had hopelessly messed up and there was nothing he could do for them. He knew he wasn't any good being a matchmaker for them…

Just then, his thread was broke by a furious Ron rushing into the Common Room.

"You awful piece of shit!" He blurted out

"What?" Harry asked stunned

"You! You are going with my 'Mione!"

"So? Would you rather have somebody else go with her?"

"Yeah. Me, you thickheaded idiot!"

"Well then go, get your act together and go, ask her. Hell, I wanted to go with Gin to begin with."

"Wait, wait, wait! You asked my sister to the ball?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"I can't, bloody hell, believe this… Ah whatever! I have my share of problems. You can go with Malfoy for all I care."

"Sorry Ron but I don't find him by far as sexy as your sister."

Ron shot a glare at him. "I'd prefer you not talking about my sister being sexy in my presece."

"Oh yeah? Why not?" Harry asked innocently, with little sparkles dancing in his eyes.

Ron took out his Potions book and leaned back, trying to drown his worries into his exam fever and not to think about Hermione and Harry and his little sister together and Hermione and The Potions exam and Hermione… these were just some of the things on his mind. And did I mention Hermione?

¤

It was the night of the ball. They had finished their exams, and since Prof. MacGonagall had put a self-correcting spell on their papers, the results were out already. Hermione had scored highest, which was somewhat of predictable. To Harrys surprise he and Ron had done well, in fact Ron was the second best after a certain Ms. Granger. Harry had actually been quite worried about him already. After the morning Ron had found out that Hermione was going with Harry, he had not spoken to her anymore. In fact, he avoided talking to anyone, if possible. Of course he answered if being asked something but also kept it as brief as possible. The answer you were most likely to get out of him was yeah or NE. He was totally calm whilst he was taking his tests, just as if nothing in the world was wrong with him. Harry was beginning to think that Ron had fallen into some kind of a trance or lost his mind altogether.

Harrys thoughts before the graduation Ball.

This is what it all comes down to. The very end. Ground zero. The times that I've had to spend studying, fearing for my life, exams, everything. It ends. What a relief. Whom am I kidding here? I loved those years. All the things I'll be leaving behind here. Happy memories, sad memories. Laughter and tears. Friendship and hatred. This is my home, Harry thought, _and now I'm leaving. _

Tomorrow at the same time, he would not be here anymore.

Harry thought, 

Ron entering the bedroom interrupted his thoughts. He looked at Harry sadly, as if he were thinking the same thing. He turned to his trunk and started changing into his dress robes. For a second there Harry thought that Ron was going to ditch the Ball, grab Hermione and… well, he had not gotten further from that. Escape to Ibiza maybe?

"Shouldn't we get going?" Ron asked.

"Yea, you're right, let's go."

They walked down to the common Room and saw somebody standing by the fireplace, obviously waiting for her date. Once they had reached the bottom of the stairs, Hermione turned around looking nervous and said,

"And I thought that it was only allowed for women to be late?"

For the first time in days, Harry saw a reaction in Ron's face. He was stunned. If you could have described his face in any other way, you would have said that he was petrified. The best thing about the whole situation, Harry thought, was that that Hermione looked at Ron too, not moving a muscle. He found all of this very amusing, and after all you could not have blamed Ron. Hermione looked beautiful, but the fact was that she had tried so hard for Ron. Just to make Ron jealous.

She had on a long, sleeveless, dark blue dress; somewhat of what Harry would have described reminded him of a medieval princess dress.

"Hmm…Guys…The Ball?"

"Yes, right…of course…Lead the way Harry." A confused Hermione muttered as Harry gallantly offered her his arm.

"Shall we, my lady?" He joked.

Harry thought that if it were possible for a human to turn green from envy then Ron would be the perfect sample of it. He positively looked like a leaf of lettuce.

The walked down to the Great Hall, which was decorated with the colours of all the houses. It was beautiful with the blue, green, yellow and red. The tables had been moved so that there was a small dance floor in the middle. Harry looked for the teacher's table, but couldn't find it. Instead, he saw Prof. MacGonagall sitting at the head of their table and Prof. Sprout sitting at the Hufflepuff table. His eyes travelled to the Slytherin table and he caught sight of Snape.

"Um… I'm gonna go find Lisa. We were supposed to meet somewhere in the Great Hall." And with that, Ron walked away. Harry saw Hermione watch him go until he was finally swallowed by a huge group of people.

"Wanna go and eat?"

"Huh?" Was the best that the know-it-all of the class could come up with.

"I asked if you want to go and have something to eat." Harry said grinning and pronouncing every word very slowly. He would bet on his broom that food was the last thing on Hermiones mind.

"Yeah. Sure, why not. Right. Let's…go…eat."

"Dear Students. May I have a word or two."

From the Gryffindor table, Seamus shouted: "Sure thing Mr. D" After that comment the hole of the student body burst out laughing.

"Well Mr. Finnigan may I remind you that you have not graduated yet…" Bits of laughter were heard.

"All right, settle down, so we can get over with this speech and taste some of this delicious food the house elves (sp?) have prepared. I can see that they have tried especially hard because some of their favourite students are graduating." He directed his eyes on Harry.

"What I have to say is not long, but do all speeches have to be long? Of all of the classes that have ever graduated Hogwarts, this one is in no way special. Yes, you have had your share of adventures, laughs, and tears… all that, is a part of life. Nevertheless, and most importantly, you have received your share of knowledge. Use it for good." After that Dumbledore blinked and said: "Now let's eat!"

B


	4. Flashback continues

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Erase/ Rewind belongs to PolyGram and Stockholm Records.

Chapter 5

¤

"Hi Lisa." Harry said, trying hard to keep the bitterness from his voice. After all it was not Lisa's fault that Ron was such a buckethead. He grabbed for two more bottles of butterbeer, opened them and handed to the waiting hands of Ron and Lisa. Harry looked towards Hermione, who had a mean look in her eyes. She was planning something and Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be there when it happened.

"So Lisa, how' did your exams go?" Hermione asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well…" Lisa obviously felt embarrassed. She blushed a little and looked down at her hands. "I didn't score high … but I did well at Potions so I'll probably open my own little shop somewhere. I was thinking about Diagon Ally but the rent is pretty high there and I don't know if…"

" Wow! How did you get to do well at Potions? What did you do? Pay Snape? Did a small favour for him somewhere in the past? Friend of the family?" Ron asked with amazement reflecting in his face.

"Yeah I wonder what kind of a favour was that…" Hermione muttered. She was starting to feel a tingle of anger towards Ron. She scored highest in all the subjects and did she ever get a wow from Ron? No! Harry sending her a warning look interrupted her train of thoughts.

Lisa however had not heard or noticed what Hermione had said and explained that she just was the best of the class at that subject.

"Well now I know what I should have done to be the best of the class at Potions – died my hair blond! Snape obviously has a soft spot for light haired people with no brains. Lisa here is a perfect example! In addition, she's not Slytherin! Wow! I mean, I'll go call my hairdresser this very second!"

Lisa looked at Hernione with a hostile look plastered on her face. Well, you cannot really say that it wasn't justified. Harry just stared at Hermione, who usually could keep her tongue behind her teeth and bare all kinds of insults with nose high up in the air, with utter disbelieve. He simply could not believe his ears. Ron was choking with laughter, his face all red, holding his stomach with his hands, almost falling under the table.

Lisa elbowed Ron and hissed: "Ron! You're supposed to be my date!"

That brought the poor boy back to the hard, cold and frustrating reality and he retained his I-don't-care-about-anything look.

What Harry wondered now was, how they could have a civil conversation after all the things Hermione had said. They just went on and on about silly little things like how they would miss Hogwarts, all their friends, teachers, and the feasts in the Great Hall. Actually it was Harry and Lisa, who participated in the conversation for Ron and Hermione were staring at the wall or the table, glancing at each other every once in a while.

"Where are you planning on going, Harry?"

"Um…I…am not really sure. The first thing I want to do with my life is move out from my present residence."

"Oh…right…The Muggles…Darsleys, was it?"

Harry looked towards Ron from the corner of his eye. He was drinking the eighth glass of some weird acid green cocktail. Harry was almost certain that if it would have been up to Ron he would have finished a bottle of Firewhiskey and started with a new one.

Harry was not the only one to notice Ron staring. Lisa might not have been the smartest person in the world, but she was smart enough to figure out what it meant if your date had been making goo-goo eyes at somebody else for the whole evening. She stood up and so did a confused Ron.

Lisa outstretched her hand and said: "It has been a pleasure knowing you Ronald Weasly." She shook his hand and walked off with dignity that Harry admired.

"Hermione, I hope you two will be very happy together." And with that, she left.

Ron sat down, stunned. He was not sure weather he should go after her or not. Hermione looked after Lisa, who had just disappeared through the doors of the Great Hall. She also was not sure of the fact whether she was expected to blush and look suprised about the situation or fall into Rons waiting arms. Well, Ron seemed just as confused as she was and his arms were not the place to fall into, at the time, so they sat in silence. Harry was tired of trying to make a conversation and let himself slide into his cloud of misery.

The Great Hall was emptying slowly. The tables that had been decorated beautifully before, now looked a mess: empty bottles, plates with unfinished bits of cake on them, fruit baskets that were still half full, butterbeer stains on the tablecloths. Half of the people that had filled the Great Hall before had now left the party, as it was two am already. Only a few brave dancers were still swinging to the beat.

Suddenly a voice said: "Last dance, folks!" And all the people still left in The Great Hall headed for the dance floor to have their last dance as Hogwarts students – the next day they would leave with the rest of the kids but with one exception – they would not be coming back the next autumn. When I said all, I meant all but three. Harry, Ron and Hermione were still sitting at the table, two of them deep in thought and the third one trying to figure out how to get his friends to go and dance at least the last dance together.

Harry got up and offered Hermione his hand: "Want to dance?"

"Yeah. Why not. It's the last one."

Ron had got up from his seat as well and looked towards the door of the Great Hall not to look at Hermione nor Harry and said: "Well, since my date ditched me I'll go to sleep."

"You can't leave."

"Why not?"

"Well, I guess that Hermione will have to dance alone then…."

"What, on earth, are you talking about Harry?" Hermione said.

"Well you see," Harry said escorting his two friends towards the dance floor, "I just got the most terrible cramp in my left foot…" Harry said pointing on one of his feet.

"Harry, that would be your right foot you are pointing at." Ron said pulling a face at Harry.

"Well you can never really tell, now can you?"

Ron looked Hermione in the face. Fare skin, that puffy, curly chocolate brown hair, those eyes of hers… Sounds of the band starting to play and slow tunes of music floated towards them. Hermione didn't exactly know what to do since Ron was staring at her as if he was petrified and everybody else were dancing and bumping into them a little, since they were the only ones standing in the middle of the dance floor in everyone's way.

Hey,  
What did you hear me say?  
You know the difference it makes  
What did you hear me say?

Yes,  
I said it's fine before  
But I don't think so no more  
I said it's fine before

I've changed my mind  
I take it back  
Erase and rewind  
'Cause I've been changing my mind  
Erase and rewind  
'Cause I've been changing my mind

I've changed my mind

So,  
Where did you see me go?  
It's not the right way, you know  
Where did you see me go?

No,  
It's not the light, oh no  
I just don't want it to grow  
It's not the light, oh no

Erase and rewind  
'Cause I've been changing my mind  
Erase and rewind  
'Cause I've been changing my mind  
Erase and rewind  
I've changed my mind

"Um…Ron? Dancing?" Hermione stated.

"Huh? Yeah, right."

END OF FLASHBACK

Harry came back to the present day. Memories. He sighed. Harry hated asking for help, because he was used to handling things on his own.

The three years that had passed had made him even more famous than he used to be, if possible. He was now a seeker for England's National Quiddich Team, under the steady hand of Oliver Wood, who had also made the team after graduating from Hogwarts. Harry's job paid well, you could actually say that he was one of the best-paid seekers in the world. He could have got the best protection available, but after Colin had offered that he should ask Ron and Hermione for the job, he realised that he wanted nobody else. If he asked the Minister of Magic for help, he would probably send fifty men to protect the national treasure and watch him 24 hours a day. Lots of paperwork and things like what colour his undoes where on a particular day or how many spoonfuls of soup he had for lunch would most certainly find their way onto the pages of the report.


	5. Letter

Chapter 6

The logical solution to his problem would be Ronald Weasly – his oldest and best friend. Nevertheless, will he come if it means to be working together with Hermione? Side by side, day after day, hour after hour. Harry found that he could connect the two things: one - what he wanted and the other – what he wanted for his two best friends. If he would not tell Ron that Hermione was coming and vice-versa, then by the time they were here, there was nothing they could do about it. "Yes!" He said aloud and congratulated his brilliant mind.

Harry was not too worried about the threats though. He thought, that the idiot would soon find somebody else, he/she liked better and started to torture him or her instead.

After having to face Voldemort, life itself had seemed easy enough for Harry. He now was the best Seeker in England and was well aware of it. Witches from all parts of the Wizarding world sent him letters every day saying that he was the man of their dreams and that would he please marry them. Harry however, did not want any of them. He liked girls that did not recognise him straight away and thought he was a normal member of the Wizarding Community, just as they were. He had just dumped his girlfriend Sally for a pretty face, called Leah, whose most intelligent answers were Huh? and What?. She was beautiful though. Harry suspected that her grand-grand-grandmother had been a veela. To Harry's frustration she kept floating around in his house telling Justin and Colin to cook her food, clean up her mess and wash her clothes. He was wondering constantly, why he had not told her to 'bugger off'. He also thought that after the Cho thing he should have known better.

Harry started his letter to Ron, but soon found that it was not nearly as easy to write to him as it used to be. The factor could have been that he had not answered Ron's last letter two years ago, saying that he would like to see Harry on his birthday. Harry did not know how to tell him that he was going to be in Italy, training. It was completely Harry's fault that they were not communicating and he admitted it. There was one trip and then another, an important training or a Quiddich match he simply could not miss. Soon six months had passed since their last letter and Harry felt embarrassed to write. The truth of the matter was that if he had not gotten into this rotten trouble with the nutcase, he would not be writing this letter at all.

Dear Ron,

I know that I have been a real $$hole, not writing but I need your help.

It seems like I have an adoring fan. Not like all of those witches saying they think I am the most attractive male alive but the kind that says they love you and then want to kill you, if you know what I mean.I am not too worried, but as for Justin and Colin, well they are terrified and I thought that maybe they were right and I do need some professional help.

Owl me back immediately.

With best wishes,

Harry

Harry went to the cage, where two owls were sitting, side by side and opened the door. The younger and more energetic owl flew out and landed onto his shoulder. "No Fwoop. This time Hedwig gets to go." Harry said gently and looked at Hedwig who hooted silently and flew out, stretching her wings.

Harry had bought a new owl a few years back to keep the pressure off Hedwig, who was starting to get too old for longer trips. She had been quite offended for a while but soon accepted the fact that she was no longer the only owl in Harry's life. By now she had not delivered a letter in a month and was quite upset. She has her pride too, you know!

He felt he would rather have Hedwig take the letter to Ron, because she was still the one whom Harry trusted with all the important things to be taken to the correct location on the right time.

Harry tied the letter to Hedwigs foot and said: "Take this to Ron."


	6. Where did I go?

Chapter 7

Ronald Weasly was sitting in his office finishing the most boring part of his work – report's. What the subject had had for lunch, what was the subject wearing (at the time he was filling out the chart, saying what colour the subjects socks had been. Answer: Do not know. Did Not check but will make sure to see next time.), if the subject was single, married or a widow, if the subject had a job, etc. The list was endless and he had just filled out the first ten pages. Well, at least it seemed endless enough for him.

It seemed as if time was rushing past him at the speed of light. I had just been lunch, had it not? No, that was three reports ago and now he had to go through only (Ron was counting) sixteen more. This was so like him – push things onto the last minute. He had always done that at Hogwarts and burnt his fingers with the bad habit one too many times, but still had not learned from his mistakes. He remembered him and Harry looking for answers from their Potions books the night before the exams although they had gotten the possible questions a week ago. Naturally, Snape had not used the questions he had given them. Hermione had always done hers during the lunch in the library or in the common room, working late into the night.

¤

Hermione. Ron had not seen her since they left Hogwarts but remembered the ball as if it had been yesterday. He and Hermione and Harry entering. The feast. (At the thought of food, his stomach made some weird noises.) The battle of words between Hermione and Lisa. Well it was somewhat one-sided he had to admit. Lisa leaving. He and Hermione dancing. Ron thought that whatever happened to him, he would always be grateful to Harry for making them dance. He thought back to what it had felt like, holding Hermione in his arms, dancing. Too bad, it was the last song, he was thinking to himself now. I should have gotten my act together and asked her while I had the chance. I have a cramp in my left foot. Ron laughed as he thought back on the stupid excuse of Harry's. He was pretty sure that Dean had asked her to go with him, while they were coming up the stairs. What was Hermione thinking? That a person would just ask her to meet him in the Trophy Room in the middle of the night (well ten o'clock is not that early, Ron justified his thoughts.) for nothing. 'Hey Herm! I wanted a quiet place to ask you what you were planning to do with your life.'

Nevertheless, Hermione did not go with Dean, now did she? Oh no! She went with Harry instead. That meant that she did not like Dean to begin with. She liked Harry! Ron felt fury rising in him. His best friend and his girlf… Well, Hermione had not exactly been his girlfriend so he could not blame her nor Harry for going to the ball together. However, he did. He knew that it was wrong to think like that, but he merely couldn't help it. Harry knew that he liked her and what did he do? Stab him in the back.

¤

At that moment, a snowy white owl knocked on the window. Ron's eyes widened.

"Hedwig? That really you, my friend?"

He stood up and let the owl in that instantly sat on his shoulder and extended its foot with a letter towards him. Ron hesitated, then untied the letter and let Hedwig fly away to rest with another owl sitting in the corner of the large fancy office.

Dear Ron,

I know that I have been a real $$hole, not writing but I need your help.

Asshole? That is a bit mild don't you think so? Need my help? What? Your therapist has a week off?

Ron felt weird, but he let his thoughts of sarcasm flow freely through his mind. He found that he was in titled to that at least.

It seems like I have an adoring fan.

Well you probably have many fans. You are the best seeker in England. The fans kind of come with being famous. Don't get scared or anything.

Not like all of those witches saying they think I am the most attractive male alive but the kind that says they love you and then want to kill you, if you know what I mean.

No I don't know what you mean. I do not have a PhD in phsycology. Most attractive male alive? Where did I go?

**I am not too worried, but as for Justin and Colin, well they are terrified and I thought that maybe they were right and I do need some professional help.**

Colin and Justin? Colin and Justin? Colin and Justin as in Colin Creevey and Justin Finch-Fletchley? Boy, you should be terrified if you spend time with geeks like them.

Owl me back immediately.

Immediately? In my last letter I asked you to writeimmediately and I got a reply in…hmmm…not more or less than three years. Three GODDAMN years!

**With best wishes,**

**Harry**

With best wishes? Good that he didn't write: From the King of Quiddich - The Great Harry Potter!

Ron wasn't quite sure of what he should do. His mind was telling him to write back a letter saying some things that polite people don't even like to think about and his heart was telling him to go and help the best friend he ever had. Ron wasn't stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. He had lost Hermione, listening to what his mind was telling him and excepted it after a while but he wasn't going to leave Harry into the hands of a lunatic.

Harry

Was the little "incident" at the last Quiddich match his handywork? You better not even dream about taking this loonatic on alone! I'll see you in two days!

Ron

He checked the note for spelling mistakes that sometimes seemed to hop into his notes without him knowing it. The letter was short and Ron knew it, but he just couldn't squeeze more out of himself after Harry had forgotten him for so many years. He didn't know what to say to Harry as he had never been good at putting his feelings into words. Ron tied the letter to Hedwigs foot and sent her away, watching silently how the old bird flew away swiftly.

He was starteled by a voice from the door: "Ron? I'll be leaving now."

"Mathilda…yes of course. Bye….Wait…Did you send the letter I wrote to the Minister?"

"Well why yes. After I had completely re-done it."

"Re-done it? What was wrong with it?"

"Weeeeeelll….there were some weird words…Like the budge…Budget would be more accurate, don't you think so?"

Ron gave a weak grin and then said: "Alright. Go home.Give my best to Tom and the kids."

And with a pop, Mathilda was gone. Ron stared out of the window thinking about his friendship with Harry and their years at Hogwarts. Before he could stop it, Hermione surfaced in his mind yet again with her puffy brown hair, chocolate-brown eyes and graceful features. He drove her away into the far end of his mind and sat down, pulling his hand through his hair in angst. Sometime he still dreamed of how things could have been if he hadn't been such a stupid, idiotic, misunderstanding… Ron. This was just so like him. However, he had never found out weather or not Hermione loved him. He had suspected though since the fourth year. The Triwizard Tournament. Krum. The great challenges that Harry had to take on. Fleur.

Yes Fleur had been a real beauty; he had to admit, though he had never felt anything towards her. Ron, like any guy, liked to take a look at pretty girls every once in a while, but he had to admit – Fleur had been nothing comparing to Hermione. She was more than a pretty face. Besides, he would have never changed that bickering between them for anything else. He loved the way her eyes grew even a darker brown, the way her normally creamy coloured cheeks revealed a slight shade of pink, and her puffy hair bounced as she turned her head to Ron and almost hit his eye out with her finger pointing right at his face.

Report's Ronald Weasly! Concentrate! He was mentally beating himself up for letting Hermione visit his thoughts. Why should he not let her invade his mind? He was single and it was perfectly normal to dream about beautiful women. Well that particular woman was probably married to Victor Krum by now. He didn't know for sure because Krum had abandoned Quiddich a year after their graduation and there nothing was heard of him ever since. Not in the newspapers anyway. Ron assumed that the girl of his dreams and Vicky would be married by now because the last headline Krum made before leaving professional Quiddich was the article about Vicky and'Mione getting engaged.


	7. Corpse in a coffin

The next morning Harry was wakened by something flying over his head, screeching and his butler Niles yelling.

Niles wasn't a wizard, he was a muggle, but he was good at his job. Like an English butler ever he never asked too many questions, or at first, he didn't. Now everyone living under the same roof with Harry Potter were his employees but also his friends. Harry just was not good at having people work for him and keeping the relationship formal in the process, he became friends with them.

At this particular moment, somebody or something was sitting on his head and Niles simply stated: "I could not stop her, Sir. She just FLEW in." Harry moved a little and Hedwig flew off, making unsatisfied noises.

"Hedwig! Come on! Don't be mad at me!" The snowy white owl took its place on Harry's shoulder while he untied the letter.

Harry

Was the little "incident" at the last quiddich match his handiwork? You better not even dream about taking this crazy person on alone! I'll see you in two days!

Ron

Incident? Nice way of putting it. Loonatic? Two days! Two days? Two days! He thought Ron would come, if ever, in a week or so. Now he'd have to write to Hermione fast enough. Ron might be good at doing whatever he is doing but he couldn't manage it alone. He needed help and Harry knew he'd never admit it but the Dream Team just wasn't the same without the puffy-haired know-it-all.

Harry jumped out of bed, raced to his writing desk and reached for a peace of parchment, quill and ink.

The last time he had seen Hermione was on the Platform 9 ¾. They had hugged said 'goodbye' and promised to write as soon as either of them had any news. For Hermione that was, if she finally got the job she wanted. She had dropped Harry a few letters about not being able to decide weather or not to take the Ministers offer and work for him, but after the announcement that she and Krum were getting married, was made, the letters stopped. Soon after Victor retired from Quiddich for good and considering the fact that he was no longer an interesting character to the press, he was not heard of ever since.

In her last letter Hermione had made little sense altogether and Harry thought that the letter had been written before an intense job interview, so he waited for the next one to come along but it never did. The note said something about psychology and that she likes it and maybe she'll take extra time to take a Wizards and Witches Psychology course so she could have a job in The Ministry as the Minister of Psychology. Harry had never heard of anything like that, even the Muggles didn't have anybody like that in their Government. He had thought later, that maybe he should have replied, but he hadn't had the slightest idea of what to write. What the hell were you talking about in your last note? Not too nice of a thing to ask in a letter, now was it?

If Hermione really had something to do with psychology she could be even of more help to him and Ron. Harry smiled, thinking what would happen if the two would finally meet with Harry and realise that the both of them were asked to help. They would probably try to hex him. He had to think of something to prevent that, but now his first concern was the letter to Hermione.

Dear Hermione,

I know you are surprised to hear of me after all those years, but I'm in need of your help. I do not know if you've heard what happened at the last Quiddich match, but somebody is out to get me. The person claims that he/she is a big fan of me and at first the mysterious letters that came with the rest of the mail, were friendly. Nevertheless now, it has got serious. I was almost thrown to the ground after I caught the snitch at the last match. Wood by the way thought that it was my best trick yet and that even he believed that I was actually falling. If possible, please come tomorrow.

With best wishes,

Harry

He called out to Hedwig who loyally came, sat on his shoulder and waited patiently until the letter was tied to her foot.

"Take it to Hermione, okay?"

Hedwig hooted softly and flew out of the open window, crossing the meadows with graceful wing strokes. Harry sighed heavily and let his head fall into his hands. He nearly jumped up and cursed Niles as he stepped into the room holding his breakfast-tray.

"Sir! Is everything alright?"

"JESUS, Niles you startled me!"

"Well I could tell by the way you held THAT out to me and let a beam of red out of it towards me!" He said looking suspiciously at his wand.

"Life is better here with the weird people that wave pieces of wood at you, they call wands, than handling the Smiths children."

"The Smiths?" Harry queried studied his butlers face curiously.

"Well yes. The place I worked at before I joined your humble staff, Sir."

Niles looked as if he did not want to talk about the subject much and Harry most definitely wasn't the person to push him. He knew better. All those people that had asked him about his mom and dad and Voldemort. The fact was that whatever he knew and no matter how much it hurt him, he didn't want to be the one to tell the tale.

"Niles!" Harry bellowed as he looked at his breakfast in amazement. The butler's head appeared in the doorway. "Is this all? Is this all of my breakfast?"

"Well why yes Sir."

"Now, let's get this straight. I get Cornflakes and milk for breakfast? What do you want me to do? Fall off my broom in practice? I understand that cooking is not among your duties but you used to make breakfast all the time."

"And lunch and supper and…"

"Right, right. I mean, what is the matter now? Why no more?"

"Well quite frankly doing your laundry, and fixing the place up everyday takes most of my time if you haven't noticed. Which brings me to the fact that the new cook said that he'd be here tomorrow."

"Tomorrow! What are we supposed to eat? Beans?

"I wasn't quite sure Sir, but now that you said it…Beans it is!"

The day passed quite normally for Harry. Breakfast, then practise, home to lunch, reading some fan mail. He could not have handledreading all the fan mail alone so he had help to do that.

Actually, the day had passed normally until reading the mail. There was one invitation to an art gallery opening, then a bunch of letters from "The Potter Fan Club" and two letters: one from Hermione and the other one from a certain fan of his. He opened the letter.

Harry, my friend. You didn't miss me now did you? Good practise today. Especially liked your Wronsky. I must admit you have got to be pretty good at it. Much better than you were at school. Are you scared yet? NO! The great Harry Potter and scared? You had to take on Volty so many times and yet you beat him. Impressive. Mighty impressive.

Have you already thought what would happen if you died at the next match. To who would all this wealth, that you have gained, go? Sirius? Ron? Hermione? The Weaslys? Hogwarts? One of your ex-girlfriends? I hardly think that any of them would accept. Maybe if you split it fare and square between your girls. Yeah, that's what I'd recommend you to do. Now you think I'm after money, but I'm not. I'm after one thing and that is your corpse in a coffin.

See you around, Harry Potter.

Harry touched his forehead that was covered with cold sweat. He could not believe it –The guy had really got under his skin. Guy? It could also be a woman. So now she was no longer threatening, she was following Harry and knew his daily planner. She must have been after him a while.

She? He? No clue, to who or of what genre, that fan of his was, came out of the letters. No typical girlie words. Corpse in a coffin, nice choice, Harry thought. He opened Hermiones letter, not knowing what to expect of it.

Dear Harry,

Have you told anyone else about this? If not, then keep a low profile and I will be there tomorrow 12 AM sharp. Keep your wand tucked under your pillow just in case. You can never tell with those people – they are either pulling your leg or they mean it. Most of them are just fans, angry hat you haven't replied their letters and now are just in the mood of scaring you a bit. I will have to see the letters for myself, otherwise I cannot tell. The last Quiddich match? You know I don't follow Quiddich, besides are you sure, you did not just slide off your broom? If it was planned then your new "friend" has got angry. Just keep your ass inside and you'll be fine.

PS: Hedwig was exhausted so I used my owl instead and taking her with me tomorrow

Love,

Hermione

Just keep your ass inside? Since when does Hermione say ass?

Harry skipped supper (beans, as promised) and left for his bedroom. He did not fall asleep though. Instead he stayed up and thought about the people he could have hurt that bad, that they would want to see his 'corpse in a coffin'.


	8. Apparating vs Floo Powder

Chapter 8

Harry slept late into the day for he had hardly slept at all during the night. When it was precisely 11.30 AM, Niles came and told him that he had just received a letter with Mister Woods very angry voice, saying things he would rather not repeat to the dear Sir, and that the new cook had arrived.Niles thought it best that Harry come down and take a look.

Harry smiled to his butler whose eyebrows were a little burned, but the poor fellow had not noticed it yet. The howler had probably exploded and he was in such a deep sleep that he failed to hear Oliver roaring downstairs? Well killing me would be rather easy, he decided.

Harry sighed, looked into the ceiling above him that was enchanted like the sky outside (just a little to remind him of Hogwarts) and recalled the fact that he had to be ready to block various hexes that might accidentally fly towards him later in the day. Harry sat up in his bed and decided that since he had completely slept in and there was no point in going to the pitch now, just to hear Wood yell at him.

He could already hear the captains voice ringing in his ears: " What the were you thinking Potter? Where,in the name of Merlin, have you been? Do you fully truly understand what it means to train without our seeker? I mean…. The Cup! The Team! The Game! GOD DAMNIT!" And with that, he would probably leave to the showers, mumbling quietly to himself.

Harry found Niles dusting the painting of a beautiful witch that hanged above the fireplace. Harry had painted the picture himself, although he told everyone, who happened to ask, that he had bought it from a flea market in Turkey. The woman had bright green eyes, creamy skin and was wearing a beautiful forest-green dress.

"Niles, come on! Stop it already? Everything is perfect! You dust that painting everyday as if your life depended on it!"

"Well, Sire, if I may say that I like the woman in the picture. She is not only beautiful, but also kind. Besides, you can tell from far away that the artist loved this woman deeply, that's what makes this painting so special."

"Excuse me? What gives you the impression that the artist was in love with the woman?"

"Well, for starters the brushstrokes are very soft, as if He were afraid to hurt Her and…"

Harry cut him off. "What? The strokes are…"

"Sir if I may…" Niles said in a seemingly humble tone.

"No you may not! Let me finish." Harry said shooting Niles with an irritated stare.

"Yes Sir?" The butler said seeming to be the impersonation of kindness and obedience.

"Nothing. Carry on."

Niles looked at Harry; his lips pressed together and obviously trying hard not to laugh. "Who am I to say about the picture..."

"That's right. Very good." Harry said nodding. "It's non of your business."

"After all, You painted it."

"I most certainly did not!"

"Whatever, Sir. The new cook is waiting"; he said trying to get off the subject.

"Right."

They walked to the kitchen and Niles opened the door, bowing down and saying: "His Royal Highness Harry Potter."

Harry immediately recognised the woman from the picture. She gasped and jumped up from the chair she had been sitting on.

¤

Hermione was standing in front of her open trunk and thinking hard about what she needed to take with. No robes! She was so tired of wearing the same black robes to work every day! Just because Smith ordered them to do so! What an ass that man was! A real pain in the butt!

Books! She had to take books! Maybe some "light reading" would come in handy? NE. Harry needs her help and she's going to help him even if it takes all her strength. Really, she did not get the people that got so obsessed with another person's fame and glory that they felt the need to kill them. Ron never tried to kill Harry, even though they spent seven years together and you had to admit that Harry was not exactly the kind of person, who went unnoticed. Of course Ronhad been envious of all the attention Harry got but he had never really tried to kill him, now had he?

The little angel and the little devil appear on her shoulders.

(Angel) Ron! Here we go again! Can't you just not think about him Hermione? He is probably married and has kids. Thou shalt not think about Ronald Weasly!

(Devil) Nevertheless, you know you want to…. Those beautiful eyes, the hair…not to mention his hands! The way he held you danced the last dance…."

(A) Hermione Granger! Where the hell (God forgive me!) have you left you cool head?

(D) I think it never left Ron's shoulder.

Hermione shook her head. _Angel and Devil disappeared._ She checked her trunk once more and then slammed it shut hard.

The best way to get there would probably be by Floo Powder since she never liked to Appear at strange places, seeing what it had done to people. Some heads floating around in the room looking for owners, who accidentally left their body in Brazil, for example.

She took a last look around her and was almost stepping out of the bedroom, when she saw the huge pile of reports spreading on her desk like weed after rain. She felt depression making its way to her mind.

"Ahh, what the heck! Alright you get to come! Stop whining!" She said grumpily to her collection of tortuously long documents. Hermione shoved the pile into the suitcase and walked over to the fireplace. Chiz immediately understood that she was leaving and hopefully shot up from the armchair she had been lying in.

"No. Sorry Chiz, not this time."

The look on the cats face seemed to say: You always say not this time.

Hermione took a small handful of the powder, threw it into the fire and stepped in.

"Harrys house" she yelled

¤

It soon became clear that Harry's palace or Harry's castle would have been more appropriate. The house was beautiful with red and yellow in the living room, or so she thought at lest. Her hole apartment could have fitted in this living room. Red and yellow. Gryffindor forever, Hermione thought. There was a painting of a beautiful woman just over the fireplace and Hermione had the strange feeling that she had seen her somewhere before, but wasn't sure.

However, she was not given any more time to admire the picture as she tumbled onto the floor as something had fallen on her. The something said "Ouch." And tried to move but her suitcase had opened during the commotion and she and the "thing" were now covered with reports and Hermiones clothes. It shortly occurred to Hermione that it was not a thing – it was a somebody.

"Bloody hell! If I had known that there were so many people in this house I would have Appeared in the bathroom!"

The Somebody raised its head from her chest and looked her straight in the eye. Ron. She was looking straight into the eyes of Ron Weasly.

B 


	9. World War III

Chapter 9

"'Mione? Is it really you?" Ron said, his voice shaking a bit. Thousands of thoughts raced through his head as he examined her face, eyes dashing from her lips to her eyes.

"Yes."

That was all she managed to get out of herself without her voice betraying what she felt. To be quite honest she was not sure of what her voice would give away if she spoke. What was it that she felt? Was it happiness to see him, after all those years? Actually, it had just been three, to be precise, but it could have just as well been forever to Hermione.

Ron had not changed much but she could tell he had grown up. Yes, the hair was, still a flaming red, but longer and there was a hint of sadness in his eyes as he looked down at her, wearing one of her jumpers as a hat. Hermione couldn't hold back her laughter and started to giggle as Ron's so far serious lips produced a grin.

"What? What is it?"

"Well…if you really want it then you can have it…although I am sure that it will look better on me than it does on you…." She simply couldn't continue as new fits of laughter awaited their turn to break free from her throat. Ron looked just like Quirrell in their first year as Hermione's dark blue jumper sat on his head, sleeves on both sides. He finally figured it out, as Hermione wouldn't stop laughing, pointing towards his head and breaking into new fits of laughter.

Hermione laughed and stared into the blue eyes of a certain Ronald Weasly. She felt she couldn't turn away, even if she wanted to and the truth of the matter was that she didn't. She really felt like a stupid schoolgirl – giggling at the boy she likes. _Wait! Rewind! I do not like Ron! I am just happy to see him_ that's_ all_. Her head and her heart were having a real boxing match over the matter and her head won, as usual.

"What in Gods name is going on in here?" Niles said stunned, standing in the wide, arced doorway.

That at last remark brought the two people laughing, grinning and lying on top of each other in front of the fireplace back to reality. Hermione jumped up and tried to fix her untidy clothes and hair. "Um…we were…um…"

"Yes? The only reasonable thing I have heard yet was that you were lying on the floor making out."

"Making out?" Hemione had suddenly got her voice back. "Excuse me! We just happened to arrive at the same time and then we fell…" She turned to Ron who seemed to be very amused by the whole situation and looked at him suspiciously. He leaned against the fireplace and his face was a mixture of cockiness and amusement. He lifted his eyebrows to Hermione who suddenly, for some odd reason felt unexpected weakness in her knees, but gathered herself quickly.

"Why did we arrive at the same time? Why did you arrive at all? Harry never told me you were coming! So you are here uninvited, is that it?" Hermine lifted her chin trying to fight the feeling that told her: This is a lost battle. It was probably all because Ron was giving her this I-am-in-control-of-things pose.

"Uninvited! Uninvited? Why do you always just jump to conclusions? Harry asked me to help, for your information. I, on the other hand, don't have the slightest idea of what you are doing here, though!"

"Why I am here? You have the nerve to ask me that…I…" She was at the loss of words! This _never_ happened to Hermione Granger! She blushed a bit and tried hard to focus on making up a good insult that would, so kindly, hit him where he least expected.

"I better go and see if I can find Mr. Potter…" Niles said trying hard to make it out of the room without them noticing.

Thank God! This servant-looking guy really saved her. If he hadn't said anything, she'd still be mumbling crazy.

"Yeah you do that! I'd really like to know what he has to say about _this_!" Hermione shouted as Niles fled the room.

¤

"Sir? I am sorry to have disturbed you, but…"

"This better be important…"

Harry had been sitting at the table with the new cook and they seemed deep in conversation when he barged in. Nevertheless, from the butler's point of view he could tell that if those two so-called guests were in the same room together fragile things had the tendency of breaking into a million unfixable pieces.

"Well there are two people in your living room, Sir. They are about to declare World War III."

"Ahh, I completely forgot! We will talk again later, okay? I am going to have to get _certain_ people off each others throats."

The woman nodded silently with a knowing smile.

"Niles will show you to your room."

He walked to the door, then turned round. "They haven't hurt each other yet, have they?"

"Not _yet_, Sir."

¤

"…you landed on top of me, remember?"

"…it's not my fault you got here first!"

Harry was standing in the exact place Niles had originally stood.

"Hi guys."

"Harry! Hey, we have _got_ to talk! What the hell is she doing here? You mentioned nothing about HER in your letter."

"I invited her."

"You did what? You know how we don't get along and yet you invited her? You invited her even you knew I was coming! I know the note wasn't long but this…"

"What? You invited this buckethead knowing I was coming?"

"Buckethead? Nice choice of words! Who would you like to be then, know-it-all? I'll have to think about that...Give me some time. Oh, don't worry, I'll come up with something exceptional!"

"Sit!" Harry bellowed, seeing there was no other way – he had to tell them why he had asked the both of them to come. Ron and Hermione sat down on the royally large sofa and exchanged a surprised glance – Harry had usually taken their bickering quite well and at certain times, even been entertained by it.

"Okay…Let's get down to business. The reason I asked the both of you to come is quite simple, actually. Remember the first time Voldemort and me crossed paths at Hogwarts? I would have never made it without the two of you. Same goes for the rest of the time we fought him…The truth is that I'd be dead by now, if it weren't for you two. That is why I wanted the both of you to be here. We work as a team, if one of us is missing then…Besides, I am scared out of my wits here. If it were Voldemort then, I would know, he'd choose a nice opportunity for me to hit the bucket, but now… I don't have the slightest idea of who he is? How he sees me? When he sees me? To be precise - if he is a he and not a she."

Harry shook his head in agony and let it fall to his hands.

"Don't worry mate! We'll get him!" Ron said in a convinced voice.

Hermione nodded. "With any luck you'll be celebrating in a week."

"Yeah." Ron agreed. "Just this one more question Harry."

"Hm?"

"What is that painting of Gin doing in your living room?"

B


	10. The Library

Chapter 10

Ron furrowed his brow and stood up, studying the painting from a closer distance. Harry looked quite lost.

"You know what? I don't want to know."

His best friend seemed relived, at least up until he voiced the following sentence: "So what about the letters? Can I see 'em?"

Hermione snapped out of the daydream she had unmistakably been having and demanded that she, as an expert should have a look first. Just in case Ron decided that he wanted to have a muffin to go with the letter and would leave greasy fingerprints all over the thing and the writing would be damaged. To that Ron replied that he'd try very hard to be a professional and control his craving for the muffin though it was probably going to be the hardest thing he had ever had to do. Hermione glared at him, best she could and told Harry to go and get the notes.

Her eyes narrowed as she pressed the words through her clinched teeth: "I _am_ going to read _them_ first even if it will be the very last thing I do!"

"Same here." Ron said casually.

Harry studied them in awe and muttered under his breath: "Some things never change."

"What?" The both of them hissed in unison.

"Nothing. I believe the best thing we could do right now is have lunch." He smiled hoping it would distract the two from fighting. Boy was he wrong.

"You are just trying to divert our attention! How fare is that!" Hermione exclaimed.

"'Mione…" Ron said in a rather calm voice "…We can check out the letters later. What we need now is an office. Have you got some sleek surface here, where my reports wouldn't bother you? King Arthur's Round Table, I imagine, would be suitable.

"The library?" Harry asked brows high up near this hairline.

"You have A **LIBRARY** and you didn't tell me! I cannot believe you Harry Potter! That's just **evil**!"

Ron laughed so hard that his stomach started to hurt, although after receiving a warning look from Harry he tried to disguise it with a hard cough but failed miserably.

"Well the table is large and wide, as you requested and I can't honestly imagine Hermione agreeing to work anywhere else."

"I would."

To that the guy's looked at each other and grinned.

"What? I honestly would!"

¤

The library was huge, even by Hermione Granger standards. There were books from wall to wall, all listed alphabetically, by genre. As Harry led her and Ron forward into the room, she noticed that this was not the kind of library you could study books for a longer period of time – it was just too comfortable.

At first she had thought the opposite, as they stepped in to the room there was a wider corridor that led to the far end of it. The huge bookshelves formed an enormous labyrinth of the rest of the room with passageways that looked dark and creepy trailing so far off, that she couldn't see the end.

At last, they got to, what seemed to be the other end of the room.

"So you like?" Harry asked eyeing them curiously.

'We like? We like?' Hermione thought to herself looking around as if she had been blind before and just now got her eyesight back. She felt like dancing around. It was perfect! She wouldn't leave this place as long as she stayed here!

There was a giant comfortable emerald-green sofa in front of a large fireplace where the roaring flames were dancing, rising up to the chimney. The floor was covered with a large soft Persian rug, that your foot sunk into, as you stepped on it and an oak-wood table in the middle of the room that was as big as the Gryffindor House Table in the Great hall.

"It's wonderful!" Hermione said and hugged Harry with pure happiness.

"It'll do." Ron threw his coffer on the table and pulled his reports out, not looking at Harry and Hermione anymore. Harry smiled to himself; realising how little things had changed in three years.

¤

Ron understood that his feelings for the puffy haired girl had never really left him. They were just waiting to burst out at the worst moment possible and that moment was now – he found it very had to retain control as Hermione flung herself into Harry's waiting arms. Nice combination – the Quiddich Star and … Hermione. What does she actually do for a living? Undoubted its something big and glamorous that you get bundles of money for each month.

Hermione, he had to admit, had changed. Her hair was now curly, not puffy. She had most definitely changed her stile – she was wearing jeans and a tight black turtleneck polo. If somebody had asked Ron to describe Hermiones appearance the day before, he would have surely mumbled something about black robes, a bag full of books, puffy hair and the most beautiful chocolate-brown eyes he had ever seen.

¤

"Ron! Hello! Earth calling!" It was Harry.

He found that he had been blankly staring at the roaring flames in the fireplace and thinking of Hermione. Ron simply couldn't concentrate in her presence. If he had been filling out the clothing charts on the first page of the reports, he would have probably dressed the subject in pink fluffy bunny slippers and a poncho. He had to find another place to work! Being in the same room with Hermione, not thinking about her had become impossible!

"Now that you are with us again, Harry was just asking what you would like for dinner."

"I don't generally have dinner so anything would be fine with me."

"You and no dinner! God you have changed! Back at Hogwarts you were the first one in The Great Hall!" Hermione stated cynically.

There they were, once again drifting towards a fight, like a lost ship on a stormy sea. This was endless! Just like Earth rotating, as the morning coming, even if you didn't want it to, as Snape hating him and other things beyond his control.

They would have to figure it out by themselves; there was nothing he could do about it. God knows Harry had tried, but he knew better now – no good could come of it.

He remembered one event that could have very well changed the lives of Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasly forever – The Graduation Ball.

Ron had pondered over the fact, whether to ask Hermione or not for over two months and had finally decided to get his act together, as Harry pointed out - there was nothing to it. But, being as jealous of petty little things as Ron was, like innocent hugs between friends…

¤

"Harry? Harry! Great! Now we've lost him too! What do you guy's do? Take turns?"

"I'm here! What is it?" Harry asked in a grumpy voice, being shaken out of his flashback.

"Well, Ron was just saying that he would like Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavour beans and Honeydukes best chocolate for dinner! What will you say about that!"

"Great idea?"

Hermione looked at the both of them furiously. One corner of her mouth started twitching so she turned towards the fireplace and tried looking serious. Suddenly, Ron grabbed her waist, threw her over one of his shoulders and started for the door in the other end of the room, Harry in the lead.

"Ronald Weasly! I am warning you! If you will not put me down this instant I will hex you so bad, that you will remember me for the rest of your life!" Hermione laughed as Ron and Harry continued to rush through the passageway towards the door

"I am already having trouble forgetting you so let's just skip the hex, shall we? Besides, it is very good for you to eat some non-healthy food for a change. You have gotten too thin! A good Hogwarts food course would be the best, but Chocolate Frogs will just have to do!"

B


	11. Every Flavour Beans and too much wine

Chapter 11

Harry and Ron with Hermione still tossed over his shoulder, walked to the living room.

"You want to eat here or in the dining room?" Harry asked.

"Yeah sure, why not." Ron was once again eyeing the painting curiously. Harry caught his gaze and abruptly said:

"I'll…go…find Niles."

"'Mione?"

"Mhm?"

"Why do you think Harry has a picture of Gin in his house?"

"Well I wouldn't know. Maybe they are…just… very… good….close… friends?" Hermione said, grasping the point Ron was getting at.

"Um…Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Want to put me down now?"

"No. You might just escape and get away with eating healthily." He said, still deep in thought, staring at the painting. Nevertheless, he seated her on the couch.

"Who do you think painted it? I mean… You know our family couldn't afford an artist and Ginny has never modelled to anyone. And that dress…she doesn't have any that would look even remotely as good on her."

"Ron!"

"Well we're poor, right? And that thing must've cost a fortune." He examined it for a while longer. "You know something about artists, don't you? I mean, you know something about everything. Who painted it?"

"Well at the moment I can only say that you are wearing Diesels."

How could I just say that? '…you are wearing Diesels.' She felt a blush creeping up onto her cheeks.'You know something about everything.' Was that a compliment? Then again, he had called her a know-it-all before so there was a slight chance (knowing Ron, more than a slight chance) that he was just being sarcastically mean. Argh! I can never figure out if he is being serious or is just joking around to piss me off.

"What?" Ron said, not realising what him wearing Diesels had to do with the picture.

"Well you are blocking my view, if you still haven't noticed, you buckethead!"

Ron chuckled and obeyed. He turned his gaze toward Hermione and, as little as he wanted to admit it to himself, found Hermione far more interesting. She stood up, walked to the painting and studied it more closely, brow furrowed. She suddenly got a strict expression on her face, examining it even from a more immediate distance. She mumbled something that sounded upsettingly like 'library'.

¤

Niles thought his eyes were deceiving him and blinked, before he could once again recover his seen-it-all-done-it-all expression and said in a dignified voice: "Your junk food awaits you."

"Thank you…?"

"…Niles. And you Sir might be?"

"Ron, Harry's friend from Hogwarts."

"And the Madam?"

Niles got no response from Hermione, who was desperately searching for clues like colours, brushstrokes and stile.

"Herm? You wanna answer the poor man's question?"

Still, no reply from the curly haired girl, standing in front of the fireplace hypnotised.

"Is she having concentration problems of some kind, that I am not aware of?"

"Yes. They most often occur at the time she is studying. Boy you should have seen her before N.E.W.T.- s! Let me just spell it out for you: I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E! Or the time when she was trying to launch spew! Wow! I mean…"

"Sorry for interrupting you like this Sir, but I'm just curious… Were you in love with her at the time or did you just fall for her now?"

Ron was looking quite bewildered. "Um…a….um…. Come again?" To be more exact he was looking very much like a fish, pushed out of the nice homey ocean by an unexpected wave.

"Is lunch ready? I have no idea who painted this beauty here, but it seems familiar. I mean… I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'll be sure to flip through some books later." It was Hermione, awakened from her studying daze.

"Yeah, lunch is ready." Ron was wondering just how much she had heard, but gathered himself in no time.

"May I escort you my lady?" Ron said, offering her his hand.

"Well why I'd be delighted."

Niles rolled his eyes and showed them to the dining room where an anxious Harry was already waiting for his chance to destroy the huge pile of food that lay in front of him.

"What took you so long? Ended up on the floor once more?" He said smirking.

"'Mione got carried away."

"With doing what? Was it a solo activity or were you in it together?"

" Yes we were tearing each others clothes off just as Niles walked in. Too bad though. We'll have to continue later." Hermione said, smiling her sweetest smile to Harry. "Besides I am thinking that a bed would be far more comfortable, don't you think so Ronald?"

"Do not call me Ronald!" The young man sitting next to her hissed.

"Oh aren't you adorable!" She said, then gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek and turned to Harry. "So what's for dessert?"

" Today there is no course called dessert. All is dessert!"

There were Harry's all-time favourites Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, pumpkin juice, Sugar Quills, Butterbeer and Honedukes best (and probably biggest) bar of chocolate Hermione had ever set eyes on.

"Special order," Harry explained.

¤

"… and remember that time in our third year…."

"Yeah. Fred and George…."

"…. Humongous Bighead! I won't forget that as long as I live!"

All three burst into laughter. The candles had burned low and the shadows had grown longer, revealing that Harry's castle was not such a cosy place to wander about, late at night. At least, that was how Hermione felt. There was something about this house, maybe it was just this room, she didn't like. She had the constant feeling someone was watching her. Maybe, it was just the amount of wine they had drunk. Harry said he had to go and check with Niles about the rooms and she didn't feel comfortable in this room, even though the fact that Ron was sitting next to her made her feel safer in some way.

She felt someone watching her, from a close distance. The hair on the back of her neck rose, as she studied the room about her. Harry gone, Ron sitting next to her, the door closed, no danger from there… You are perfectly fine. Wait! Ron was NOT sitting next to her. Where was he? Possibly she had dozed off and he had left. No! Ron would never do that.

She got up, the floor swimming underneath her feet, and tried to walk. One step, two steps…the third one is about to come…She tried to take the third step, but her feet refused to carry her body and she fell to the floor.

The person watching had the excellent chance! She was, unarmed, lying on the floor and obviously drunk.

When was the floor last so soft? And smelled this well…. Just like Ron… Harry had the best carpets!

"Okay princess. Let us get you to your room before you try to walk there. That, by the way, would probably take all night."

"No! Let go of me you evil…Ron!"

"Yeah well, no need to thank me. The pleasure is all mine."

I thought…I thought…"

"…that I was the evil monster from under your bed, just waiting for the perfect moment to launch at your feet?"

"Yeah….something like that…"

"Well, I figured when your fist was coming dangerously close to my face."

"So, I am pretty drunk, huh?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"I never thought this would…."

"…Happen to an educated person like you?"

"Mhm."

"Well, there is a bright side."

"Really? What's that?"

"If you were sober, you'd never let me carry you to bed."

B


	12. The Morning After

Chapter 12

"Well, there is a bright side."

"Really? What's that?"

"If you were sober, you'd never let me carry you to bed."

Hemione was just about to word her response as they walked into one of the second floor bedrooms to find the familiar figures of Harry and Niles talking. They, however, fell silent as Ron, with Hermione in his arms, walked in. Niles gave Harry a yeah…right look and wished goodnight to Ron and Hermione, looking quite pleased with himself. Harry smirked at the two of them.

"What?" Ron said, eyeing Harry suspiciously.

"Nothing." Harry said, avoiding Ron's eyes and looking around the room, to keep him busy.

"There is something and you are not telling me. Now, what is it?"

When it came to a bad-tempered Ron, Harry understood that there was nothing to be done. He knew only a few people in this fair world who dared to confront Ron in that state. They were (in order of bravery) : Hermione, Molly Weasley and Ginny. If it came to arguing and bickering, others were simply negligent – Ron was by far too stubborn for them to begin with.

"Niles was just…asking me…" He coughed to hide his amusement over the business.

"Niles was asking you what?"

Harry kept coughing. Ron, standing in the doorway, with a drunk Hermione in his arms was probably a once-in-a-lifetime sight and therefore well worth seeing.

"Today please if you may? My hair will grow grey before you get it out."

"Alright. He was just asking me why I wanted two separate rooms for you two, that's all."

"He what! Come again?" Ron bellowed. Hermione snorted and mumbled something that sounded strangely like: 'Shut up Ron.'

"Okay…okay. Calm down Ron. You can do it. Simply get your mind off of killing Niles and Harry… so the first thing I'll do tomorrow is kill Niles… Have to write that down…" Ron lay Hermione on the bed and pulled the blanket over her, tucking the side.

"Your room is next-door and mine is last down the hall. Niles suggested that we accommodate you like this. He thought of your comfort. Said that he didn't want you to have a long trip to take." Harry quickly exited the room, Ron at his heels. He closed the door and then turned face to face with Harry.

"Me. And. 'Mione. Are. Not. Planning. To. Sleep. Together." He said, tips of his ears as red as his hair.

"Well, things don't always work out as planned. Night." Harry simply stated and walked towards the end of the corridor to his room.

¤

Bright rays of sunshine were peeking through the curtains as Hermione pulled her blanket over her head. She decided that since her head was about to explode with the awful headache she was having, she was in no position in doing anything today, but sleeping. Niles apparently didn't seem to share her opinion as he walked and pulled the curtains off.

"Rise and shine, Miss!"

Hermione poked her head out and the burning sunlight hit her with full power.

"What are you doing? I am not getting up! My head hurts like hell! Out!" She tossed a pillow at Niles, who retreated out of the room.

¤

"Sirs? I am sorry to announce that the Madam wishes to sleep and will no be attending…"

"Will not be attending, my ass! Come on Harry! If she has a hangover, it's her damn problem! Remember that one time when we came from that party the Ravenclaw girls were having? How she dragged us out of bed? Even though it was Friday and we had potions first? Oh! The sweet taste of revenge!" Ron spoke dreamily as he flew upstairs.

¤

Finally. Darkness and peace. Hermione made a mental note never to drink again, but for now, she just wanted to stay in bed with her frustration over the stabbing pain in her head. If anyone dared to come and disturb her peace…

She did not get any further with the death penalties, however, due to the fact that two evil people, also known as her best friends, bolted in. Harry pulled the curtains off and Ron dragged her out of bed.

"Miss Granger! You will get up, even if you have a hangover." Harry said in a motherly voice as Ron opened Hermiones trunk, looking for something she could wear.

"No! That is it! Get out! Now!" Hermione wasn't aware of the fact that she could make such a loud voice…but she did like the outcome, though. It stopped Harry and Ron, dead at their tracks. The effect, nevertheless, as she soon learned, was temporary. The two continued to move around energetically, making her head spin.

"'Mione? I imagine you should wear this. What do you think?" Ron was holding up one piece of clothing that did look like a dress, but you could not actually be sure of its use.

"My night-gown?" Hermione asked amusedly.

"You sleep in this thing?" Ron's jaw almost hit the floor.

"Yeah. It's comfortable."

"Comfortable?" Ron was stunned, looking up at Hermione and then the nightgown. He was probably having the time of his life, dressing Hermione in it, when Harry interrupted.

"I have my old PJs if you find 'em interesting…"

"Shut up Harry!" Ron was roughly brought back from his dreamy state and was not too happy about it.

"Boys…"Hermione snorted "…. Don't take this the wrong way, but GET OUT!"

"You'll just fall right back in bed. I swore on my mother's grave…"

"Your mother was and is alive and well Ronald!"

"…That I would revenge you for dragging us to potions." Ron finished.

"When was that?"

"After that great Ravenclaw party." Harry explained.

"You two would have skipped the hole day if it wasn't for me!" Hermione had a stern, almost MacGonagall look on her face as she said this, looking at them as if they were still in their seventh year. "Imagine what Snape would have done! He would've…he would've…Uh! Made you drink Neville's potions or something of that sort!" Hermione blurted out. It was very unlike her to say something bad about Neville, as she, of all people had always been very friendly toward him. "I'm sorry. I just said the first thing that came to mind."

"Nothing to apologise about. I'd hate drinking something like that. To think what he did to Trevor! If you hadn't helped Neville with his potion the poor thing would have surely died." Ron pointed out the obvious.

¤

All three of them sunk into a wave of memories that washed over them at the thought of Hogwarts. The classes had been great, leaving out Potions of course. The things they had to face over the years had not shattered their happy memories. Hermione was thinking about the cosy library of Hogwarts and how well she had got along with her professors and fellow students. (That is, not counting Snape and Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle and the rest of the Slytherin gang) Harry missed the Quiddich matches; the excitement before the game started the early practices and Wood's long speeches over tactics (now they resembled more to Woods roaring over tactics). And as for Ron, he missed the food. The food and the time the three of them spent together. He had always feared that graduating would tear them apart. Harry regularly in the other end of the world somewhere and Hermione…

Well, Hermione was another matter completely. Whenever he spent time with her they fought or were silent feeling awkward in each other's presence. Before the Yule Ball, it had been fine…everything had been dandy between them. After the Yule ball, that was, when he started to doubt his we're-just-friends act towards her. Nevertheless, he had always had the common sense to keep quiet about it and now, with no hints of any kind coming from him, Harry was making strange comments. He couldn't have been that obvious, could he? Moreover, Harry wasn't a mind reader as far as he knew. Maybe he was talking in his sleep?

B


	13. I am not supposed to talk about it

Chapter 13

Ron, Hermione and Harry were sitting in the dining room, having breakfast. As Hermione had pointed out (more than once; in a loud voice) that this was, by far, the best breakfast she had had since she left Hogwarts. Harry could bet that Ginny was in the kitchen, blushing, like only a member of the Weasly family could. He turned to Ron, remembering him turn scarlet one too many times, as the subject of him fancying Hermione came up.

Speaking of Ron fancying Hermione, he was looking at her intensively as she drank her special mug of strong black coffee she had ordered form Niles. Whom exactly, Harry thought to himself, did Ron think he was kidding? He had known for more years than he could count for that those two would end up together. He had suspected that they liked each other since the first year, however after the Yule Ball it had became too obvious with Lavender and Pravati constantly staring in their crystal balls and laying out their Tarot cards when either Ron or Hermione were in the room and telling them that they saw a wedding drawing near. Hermione would ask irritably whether they were getting married and wanted her to be the made of honour, at which the two shrieked, muttered 'How dare you' and fled the room. That didn't, however, stop them from trying again and they seized the opportunity whenever it presented itself. This didn't go unnoticed by a certain Ginerva Weasly. She used to give Ron and Hermione sideways glances whenever they were not on speaking terms and she was forced to be the middleman between the two of them whilst Harry was in Quiddich practise. Harry never grew tired of coming through the Portrait Hole of the Fat Lady and seeing the three of them study together. Hermione writing essays that were not due for another two weeks, Ron pretending to learn Potions, never actually understanding the difference between wolfsbane and monkshood and Ginny doing her Transfiguration homework and flipping through the pages of her book, firelight playing on her hair.

The Weasly hair. Harry had to admit that he had never admired the fiery hair on any of the other Weaslys but Ginny. The way it matched her eyes, it was simply…

"Harry, would you kindly agree to bring the evidence?" Harry, who was still, stuck somewhere between crystal balls, Tarot cards and the way Ginny's hair matched her eyes, shook his head lightly.

"What?" Ron exclaimed in confusion. "Would you care to explain what you were thinking of just a second ago? Before I so rudely snapped you out of it?"

"I …um…I…mean…. I'll be right back with...the evindence ," Harry stammered. How is a person supposed to tell the other, the other being his best friend, that he was daydreaming about his little sister without getting punched in the face in the process?

¤

Harry had to go attend Quiddich practise so Ron and Hermione retreated to the library to study the evidence. At first the two of them weren't too happy about Harry going ("You'll be totally defenceless up there!" "For once I agree with her! The perfect target! What are you thinking!" "Well, if I won't show up Wood will hunt me down and kill me anyway. Believe me, he's far more dangerous these days. The Cup's coming up. Besides if anybody tried to hurt me, he'd, in all probability throw himself in front of me before the curse even got close."), but had reluctantly agreed to it and busied themselves with the letters.

"Okay, I'm done Ron. You want to give me the next one?"

"Ne, I'm still reading." Ron answered head bent low.

"If you were any slower, you'd read backwards." Hermione muttered to herself.

Ron just glared at her and before continuing with his reading muttered: "Know-It-All."

"So it's my fault you're slow?" She asked, blush creeping up on her cheeks, eyes darkening.

Can you say: Here we go again!

"No, it's just not nice of you to rub it in." Ron continued calmly.

"Rub it in? Rub it in? I thought I heard you say: Know-It-All, not me!" Her cheeks were flushed as she recalled him saying it to her throughout the years.

"Well, you'd have no reason to say it to me, since I have no wish to know it all and be the best at everything."

"Oh no? Yes, that's true! You never studied as hard as you should have! I still, to this day, can't believe you scored that high in your finals! Well, of course you had to make up for not being as famous as Harry!" Her head was stabbing with pain. She knew she was overreacting over the 'Know-It-All' thing, but she just couldn't help it, it burst out. Nevertheless, seeing Ron's expression, as he looked up from the letter, she knew she had gone too far. They were facing a huge fight. She just knew it. The way his magnificent blue eyes darkened when she had managed to piss him off with saying or doing something… She hated to admit it to herself, but she even liked it – being the one who starts the fight, seeing how the other gets all worked up with something she's said. "All your brothers were such glorious figures in the history of Hogwarts, weren't they? Bill was Head Boy, Charlie Quiddich Captain, Percy Perfect and later on Head Boy. Even Fred and George made a name for themselves as pranksters and Beaters…. And then of course Harry…"

Ron cut her short. "Has it ever occurred to you, Granger, that maybe I never wanted those things? That maybe, just maybe, I wanted to be something else? I studied all right. I studied for the finals, as hard as everyone else did. Maybe not as hard as you, but I had my future figured out, that's something you didn't. I had my eye on it for about a year then and I got it. I got what I wanted, even though I never got to be like one of my brothers, even though I was never famous like Harry, I got it. " Ron faced her furiously, keeping his voice calm and at the end of his little speech turned to face the fireplace.

"You got to be the window washer at The Ministry of Magic? Congrads!" Hermione bit back. She didn't like that the fact that she hadn't had the slightest idea of what she was going to do after she got out of Hogwarts and that it had been so obvious to everyone around her. After all, she was supposed to be the cleverest witch in her year.

"Oh that was rich! Really rich, coming from you!"

"What do you mean coming from me?" She spat out.

" I haven't heard you going on and on about your work. That's what I mean."

"Well…. I'm not supposed to talk about it." Hermione said confusedly, fearing that Ron would dig it out of her.

"Presumably you haven't filled us in because of the simple fact that you do not work, but spend your days laying around reading books and getting smarter and smarter by the day!" Ron said with a smirk.

"And how exactly would that be possible? Do you erroneously suppose I have a tree in my back yard, money growing on it instead of leaves?"

"Might as well have."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked suspiciously.

"I expect Krum to be rich beyond his dreams, after all those years in professional Quiddich. Isn't he?" Ron wore a mask of anger and… something more. Pain?

"Krum? What would he have to do with me?" She asked, confused.

"You two got engaged the same year we graduated, didn't you? And then he retired…" Ron finished the sentence as if it had been the happy ending of a beautiful fairy tail that said…and they lived happily ever after.

"For your information I am not married to Krum. We broke off our engagement. "She hissed through her clinched teeth."Yes, I actually work for a living. Not that I could say the same for you."

"I don't have a rich girlfriend at hand so I must be working for a living." He was smirking again.

"Oh, really? I asked Gin a few years back, when I ran into her at Flourish and Blotts, how you and Harry were, and she said that if I wanted more info on Harry, I should probably just read the sports section, as he never replied his letters. She knew nothing of you. Only that you came around on birthdays and holidays, looking tired. She wondered if you had a job altogether."

"Well, I do. Inform her of it when you see her next time!" he turned to face the fireplace once more, his fiery hair spiked, after pulling his hand through it constantly.

"So?"

"What?"

"What do you do?"

"The first rule is that I'm not supposed to talk about it." He said quietly.

"The second rule is that you are not supposed to talk about it?" She asked unbelievingly.

"Yeah." Ron stared into the flames, then realising what Hermione had just said. "Unspeakable?"

Hermione nodded. She could hardly believe what Ron was saying. He was part of The Unspeakables. She had never seen him around; then again she had only seen her division, as she always Apparated to work. Maybe he worked for another division or something.

"What division?" She asked. "Aurors?"

"Ne. DMD (Different Magical Disasters)."

"That's my division. Who's your boss?"

"I'm the boss of DMD." Ron grinned at her. "You work under…?"

"Smith." Hermione said bitterly.

"Aha, nasty piece of work that guy. Told me to go back to Hogwarts, when he found out they made me the head of Disasters, instead of him." He chuckled. "Say, you weren't the one to mess up with the giants, were you?"

"I was." She looked at her shoes, finding them very interesting at the moment.

Ron roared with laughter. "Smith was outraged. Came to my office. Told me to fire agent." He broke into fits of laughter once again, then imitated the poor fellow: "Problem. Must her fire. Work bad done. "

B


	14. The most attractive of the Weasly boys

Chapter 14

The three of them were sitting in front of the fireplace in the living room as Colin walked in. Ron felt Hermione tense up next to him.

"Colin! How was the trip? How's your father?" Harry asked, happy that his friend was back.

"Good, good!" Colin replied looking the other way. Then he turned his gaze on Ron and Hermione who were sitting on the couch next to each other and eyeing him as if he was Draco Malfoy.

"Hey you guys! When did you get here? How've you been! Haven't seen you since Hogwarts!"

"Thanks Colin, we're fine!"

"So you two finally…." Colin caught sight of Harry who was waving his hands energetically behind the couch.

"We finally what?" Ron asked bewildered.

"Ah…um…nothing. Were is that new chef of yours? Heard he makes wonderful sandwiches!"

"Yeah….They're just like the famous Weasly ones." Ron put in.

"In the kitchen with Niles, I imagine." Harry said.

"Harry?" Ron said as Colin had left the room. "We'll need a list of all your employees, if you don't mind. And don't forget to mention how long they've worked for you and of what sort is your relationship with them. You think you could fix it up for dinner time?"

"Yeah, sure." Harry said, looking rather perplexed. How was he supposed put Ginerva Weasly down as one of his employees? Fair enough, she could make a wonderful breakfast, but the sandwiches…. Well, she most certainly had inherited Molly's touch for them. Ron would probably turn the table upside down when reading the list. He could just keep the cook out of it…. Yes, that's exactly what he was planning on doing. Ron would presume that Niles prepares the meals and he'd never know. Brilliant!

"Is that okay with you Harry?" Hermione was talking to him and he had missed the whole story behind it. That was bad. That was very very very bad. Soon Ron and Hermione will think that he has lost it. Thinking, eyes glassed over. He remembered when Aunt Marge had been visiting and how he constantly thought about his Broom Grooming Kit. He smiled at the thought.

"Harry? Are you sure you're alright?" Here came Hermione's voice again.

"Yea, sure. Just playing with you. Do I look nuts to you?" He said grinning his Quiddich-star-headline grin at her.

"Not now, but I have to admit you did look a bit loony just a few moments ago." Hermione stated with a half-smile.

"Well, just because I happen to have a scar on my forehead, doesn't mean that I'm insane. I hope."

"Well, we're off then." Ron said, still giving him a concerned look.

"To where?"

"Remember? Library? Study letters some more?" Hermione said giving him a let's-book-a-room in-the-loony-bin-just-in-case look.

"Can't believe you! You fell for it again!" Harry shouted.

Hermione slapped him on the back of the head and headed off towards the library with Ron.

¤

Reports. Reports More reports. Nothing about me. Good. They haven't gotten too far with it. They probably have no idea whatsoever and Harry will be dead before they'll even notice what has happened. They are too preoccupied with each other anyway. Just friends. Ha! It started at Hogwarts and as I see, it has never faded.

More papers. "What was the subject wearing? What colour were he subjects socks?" Really. They think they can identify someone by their socks?

Voices. Someone's coming.

¤

"I swear, Ron. The sandwiches tasted just like your mothers."

"That can't be. Mum's at home. She hardly takes ten steps away from her grandchildren."

"Really? How many are there? You must have a lot of unceling to do."

"Unceling? Since when is unceling a word?"

"Since now. Come on! Tall me! I bet Gred and Forge married Alicia and Angelina. Didn't they? They could hardly keep their hands away while at Hogwarts."

"How did you know that? I thought it was a family secret."

"One: they used the library to snog and two: they got married as soon as they were out of Hogwarts?"

Ron laughed at this.

"I bet they've got two at least."

"Um…actually…. Four."

"Four?"

"Twins."

"Oh my god! And Percy and Penelope?"

They entered the dark passage of bookshelves.

"Percy said that he wanted to get his career flying first…and then Penny reminded him that it would be her carrying the child, so they agreed to one. Apparently Percy was rather attracted to the little one and so it is that Pen is pregnant with the second one."

"Charlie and Bill?"

"Charlie met a gypsy in Romania and they got married. Remember when we got to the Platform 9 ¾, the day we graduated? Well, that was when I first met her. Mom and dad came to get me and when we got home there was Charlie with his fiancée. She speaks English but no one except Charlie makes sense of what she's saying, so they are attached by the hip. Charlie actually admitted to sometimes not understanding her. He said that at times like that he is in the habit of kissing her and then they…. He got no further as I replied that it was gross by my means to participate in a conversation like this with my brother." He laughed at the memory.

"And Bill?"

"Still single."

"Wonderful."

"How come is that?"

"I always found him to be the most attractive of the Weasly boys."

"Oh really?"

Ron, however, got no response from Hermione as she was staring at the large wooden desk of the library all messed up. Their reports, letters and rest of the paperwork were spilled onto the table. Hermione ran to the desk, looking for the letters. The fire in the mantelpiece had gone out and the torches were giving the room a murderous sort of glow as Hermione went through the papers furiously. Ron flicked his wand at the fireplace and roaring flames rose up, filling the room with a cosy flickering light.

"Got 'em!" Hermione shouted and turned to Ron with a winning smile.

Ron frowned at this and turned to the fire.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We've still got the letters."

"He left them here to be found. He didn't want the letters back. He just wanted to let us know he'd been here. He knows how to enter the house without anybody else noticing." Ron had a worried expression on his face. The two stared into the fire wordlessly.

¤

Harry found Ron and Hermione in the library as he got back. To his utter surprise they were laughing over something, pointing at each other and then breaking into new fits of laughter. Harry smirked at the two of them. He wondered whether they had worked out their 'differences'. Not! He thought. Otherwise they'd probably be somewhere else than the library. He couldn't see how they couldn't see what everyone else could see.

"Harry!" Ron was trying hard to breath and talk at the same time. "You never believe what Herm' just told me!" He started to laugh again.

"Shut up Ron! We can't tell him!"

"Oh! Right! Too bad, though! It was a good one!" He said, able to talk normally again

"Yeah! Well, he doesn't know Smith either so…" a few quick breaths "… it'd be dull for him anyway."

An awkward silence fell upon the three of them. They used to talk about everything and everybody… Well, not entirely everybody, Ron thought. He had never told Harry about what he felt for Hermione. He (in some strange way) knew now (Ron was still seriously pondering over the thought of Harry being a mind-reader) anyway and was making strange hints that might just blow his best friend cover that he needed badly. Well, maybe it would be easier if he just came clean. On the other hand, if she didn't feel the same way, he could never look her in the eye again.

"What about my letters? Did you read 'em?"

"Ne, Harry. We just sat here talking the whole time. Of course we read them."

"And?"

"I must admit, they really are a masterpiece." Hermione said, acting all business-like suddenly. "In all my years…" She picked up the letters waiving wind on her face "… I have never come across such a neat handwriting."

"And that's all?"

"If you'd want me to do a thorough search I'd have to get the permission to use the Un-… " She shut her mouth quickly shooting a desperate glance in Ron's direction. They had an exchange of looks.

"If this is about you two being Unspeakables then I already know. Now the letters?"

"You know. You know? You know! What! Do I have post-it on my back saying 'Unspeakable'?"

"Colin told me." Harry said confused.

"Nice. We have a leak." Ron said turning to Hermione bearing an expression as if someone had died. "And just how, if you care to mention, did Colin find out?"

"'Dunno. He never told me. Just said that he had read articles about you two, that said you worked for the Ministry, but not which department, so he just assumed you were Unspeakables."

"Hermione? Have you ever had Lavender or some other reporter from The Daily Prophet interviewing you?" Ron's face stated clearly that if Hermione dared to even hint towards the fact that someone had interviewed her, he would, most probably, strangle her.

Hermione looked as if she had been slapped across the face. "Do you honestly believe that I would betray the department? The entire population of innocent magic folk I work so hard to protect? All just for a silly little interview?" She was furious with Ron, but he seemed nothing but calm.

"No." He turned towards Harry. "I have never even spoken to a reporter since that Skeeter so I could have hardly been interviewed. I think we've got your phsyco Harry."

"No," Harry said to their absolute surprise. "It's not Colin. This isn't even his handwriting."

"He could magic it to look like this" Hermione put in.

"No. We're friends he'd never do this to me."

"Look Harry! You've got to face the facts here. He was your first fan, right? Right after Ginny of course. Never mind that. He was the first one to take pictures, ask for autographs. Now you have thousands of fans just like he was. You haven't paid him enough attention and now his getting back at you."

Harry looked frustrated.

"I hate to admit it Harry, but he's right. It's the classic behaviour of a disturbed person."

Ron and Hermione exchanged worried looks as Harry sank into the sofa in front of the fireplace.

¤

He had been staring at the fire blankly for about ten minutes when he heard Ron's voice say: "How is he?" and Hermione's answer: "He hasn't moved in two hours. If you consider that good, then he's fine I guess." He felt one corner of his lip move upward. "His mouth twitched!" Hermione shrieked. "That's natural. He's not in a coma for God sakes!" "I know!" Hermione snapped.

"Hey Harry!" He heard Ron's voice say.

¤

He had been thinking about the situation with Colin and had come to the conclusion that it couldn't possibly be him. He was just a good friend that's it. He was no longer one of his fans, for years now. He remembered when he had received the first letter. They had had a good laugh over it, right there, sitting in front of the fireplace.

¤

"Harry!" Ron bellowed into one of his ears.

"I am not deaf! You don't have to scream! Harry answered furiously turning his deadly gaze on Ron.

"Well, you're sure acting like you are."

"I'm fine! I'm not deaf! I'm not in a coma! I'm fine!" He caught his breath after his furious outbursts and then continued rather calm. "Look, I know all the evidence point to him, but I swear, he's my friend, he'd never do anything to hurt me."

The two looked at him in silence, until Ron finally broke it: "Fine, fine. Anything you say. Now can we please have some lunch? My stomach hasn't seen food in such a long time that it has forgotten what it looks like."

¤

They walked to the dining room and were arguing what they wanted to eat and where, when Harry bellowed: "NILES!"

He appeared in the doorway, bowed and said: "Yes sir? You yelled?"

"We would like some lunch."

"Well, what is it that I may bring to the dear Sirs and Madam?"

"Oh please!" Said Ron who was not used to having servants around. "You can call us by our first names."

"Alrighty then. Still, the question remains."

Before either of them had time to open their mouth Ron had said "Sandwiches" and. Niles, not wishing to hear any bickering, hurried off.

¤

B


	15. Style tips from Hermione Granger

Chapter 15

"What on earth are we going do?" It was a perfectly normal question to be asked in a situation like this, but not from Hermione Granger, the know-it-all.

Ron faced her, wearing a determined expression. "We're not going to let him get our Harry, that's what we're going to do!"

Hermione nodded. "What's the plan?"

"Okay. First things first. Harry has to be watched all day long. We can't let him out of our sight…"

Hermione cut him off by saying "Quiddich practise."

"Right. We'll think about that tomorrow morning. I need you to go and check his room. Hidden doors, windows, fireplaces, the usual. Tomorrow one of us will check the rest of the house. I hate to say this, but we're going to have to keep this from him. I don't want him get all worked up over this. You know Harry. He might want to use himself as a target to lure the nutcase out of hiding and that's the last thing we need. He'll get himself killed, or worse… expelled!" Ron said grinning wide at Hermione.

"Oh do shut up Weasly!" Hermione glared at him. "This is hardly the time to be joking around."

"Reminder, Granger! This is your boss you're talking to! The boss jokes around whenever he feels like it!"

Hermione gave him the last glareish look and hurried out.

¤

Ron turned round with a silly smile playing on his lips. He turned to the table and sighed heavily. The mess needed cleaning and this was definitely not one of his strong sides. He tried to sort his reports into one pile and Hermiones into the other but was not sure if he was doing a good job at it. 'Course, the ones with writing on 'em were easy, but the ones that did not… He'd have never thought that Hermione, of all people, would have so many unfinished documents to fill. Maybe she had grown tired of trying to be perfect at everything over the years? What are you thinking? Only three years have passed and you're already thinking like it has been forever. It has not. Only three years.

His thoughts were however interrupted by Hermione bustling in. "Harry. Can't find him. Anywhere." She panted.

¤

"So he's not in the living room nor bedroom. Not on the second floor. You check the kitchen and I'll go to the dining room." Ron was out of breath and trying hard to keep calm.

"Right." Hermione said as she started off towards the kitchen.

¤

"…And Ron was furious when they called him that!"

"We'll I'd be too, if I was called Ickle Harrykins!"

"Ne. They'd have come up with something original. They'd have liked to call you…"

¤

Two voices. One male, one female. There were no women living in this house but her and she didn't count as she was staying there temporarily. This must be… Right! No time to call Ron! She had to take matters into her own hands.

¤

"Well, I'd have to admit it'd be better than Ickle Harrykins!"

"Trust Gred and Forge to come up with something original!"

"_Expelliarmus!"_

A coffee cup flew into the waiting hands of Hermione.

"Ginny!" Hermione gasped as she laid her eyes on the woman sitting at the table with Harry.

¤

This was what Hermione would call a shock. What was Ginny doing here? How did she get here? Why didn't she or Ron know she was here? Why was she sitting at the kitchen table with Harry, talking, instead of coming and saying Hi! to them first?

Those questions however, had to wait, as Ron's voice came: "'Mione? Everything OK?"

"Go! Please go! I'll explain later!" Panic was visible in Harry's eyes so Hermione just grabbed him by the collar and dragged him halfway to the living room where they were met by a running Ron.

"Yeah, fine. Just fine. I found this little prick in the kitchen. He and Niles were having a heated conversation over politics."

"You want to explain this?"

"What?" the two Unspeakables replied in unison.

" The Rescuing Harry Potter operation."

"No…" Ron started and was helped out by Hermione "…. We were simply unable to locate you and therefore got worried." This was the fishiest explanation ever. If Harry'd only buy it!

He furrowed his brow at them and sent both piercing looks. "Right." He didn't sound too convinced but let it slip.

¤

_Back in the library._

"We'll change shifts every two hours. Even the slightest disturbance of peace in Harry's room…"

"Yes, yes I know Ron! I'll come get you."

"NO! You go in and save Harry's arse! You've been working for Smith far too long. Fill in the report first, then go on the mission. Weird fellow, that he is!" Ron pulled his hand through his short hair and turned to the table that didn't seem any more tidy than it had been before his little attempt to clean it up. "I'll check up this pile here and you take that one. Let's at least try to make something of it."

"Right." Hermione said as she sat down next to him in front of the fireplace with her pile.

After an hour of extensive work Hermione noticed something that should not have been in the pile – another letter. Ron was very absorbed in his work and didn't even notice Hermione staring at one particular piece of paper longer than the others. That is until Hermione whispered: "Ron."

"Hmm." He answered, not looking at her.

"Here's another one."

"What other one?" He asked still not looking up from one of his reports.

"Letter."

"Well, yes Hermioen. Did you just notice now that we are looking through a pile of letters?"  
"A new one."

The effect of that those words was unimaginable. Ron turned his head so fast that Hermione never even thought it humanly possible. Both stared at the envelope that said: **Dream Team** on it. Hermione, however, was more occupied with the feelings that came over her as Ron stared at the envelope from over her shoulder, his breath hitting her cheek.

"Open it."

Hermione's hands shook as she struggled with the letter. Finally she got it open.

_So finally we meet! I've been looking forward to this. It's nice to see the Dream Team all together, once again. But this mystery you will not solve. You will never find out who I am. I'm too clever. I've planned this too long for anything to go wrong. Oh yes! I've been planning! For the past three years now! So far it has worked perfectly and I do intend for my success to continue. _

_I can almost see the two of you reading this, lying to Harry. We don't want to upset the poor fellow, now do we? If I am correct, you will not tell him about the letter. No. You will keep it to yourselves, thinking the two of you can take me on. You can't! Just because you are Unspeakables doesn't mean you're all-powerful. _

_Yes. I know where you work. It isn't such big of a secret if you know the right place to look and unfortunately for you, I do._

_I don't want to make this one of these long threatening letters saying I can see you but you can't see me! If you want to admire my beautiful handwriting and the wonderful words I so kindly put in line for Harry, you don't have to wait long. There's going to be a little surprise for The Boy Who Lived amongst the mail tomorrow! Yes, you guessed it! Another letter from his greatest fan – Me!_

_Untouchable_

Hermione stared at the letter for a few seconds after reading it. Ron pulled his hand through his hair exasperatedly.

"He knows us. He knows how we think, how we act. Only one person pop's into my mind." He looked at Hermione knowingly.

"Colin." Hermione stated.

"Yup." Ron stared into the fire. "He had a pretty good chance to check out the library and create this mess to hide the letter. No doubt he was looking for clues and decided to leave a note telling us just how stupid we are."

"We can't prove it was him."

"Handwriting."

"Ne. He could have charmed it to look different."

"There's got to be something we can do!" Ron stood up and started pacing in front of the fireplace. "Damn! We can't just watch him do this to Harry! There will be another letter in the fan mail tomorrow! We know it, but we can't stop it! It's driving me mad!"

Hermione furrowed her brow. "I never thought to ask Harry, but has he ever seen the owls?"

"The owls!" Ron spun around, his face beaming. He gave Hermione a quick peck on the cheek and paced a little more, now even faster, muttering things like: 'How come did I not think of that' and 'Bloody Brilliant!'

"Ron?" Hermione interrupted the thoughts zigzagging through his head.

"Yeah."

"The plan?"

"Right, right! The plan!" He sat on the couch next to her pulling his hand through his hair once again, this time excited.

"You know you're going to be bald by the end of the week if you keep torturing 'em like that, Ronny dearest."

"You think I'd look more attractive when I'm bald? That's it! No more style tips from you Granger!" He said mockingly and continued before Hermione was able to word her response. "As I said before, we'll patrol before Harry's doorstep." Hermione admired the way he could turn from serious to funny in a matter of seconds. "I'll take two hours then you'll take two. That way the both of us are even in for a little nap. As soon as you get sleepy or anything, come tell me and I'll take over, okay?"

"Ron! I am not a beginner! I've been in it for over three years now! I think I should know the basic drill by now." Like this was her first mission ever! Well, excuse me!

"Granger. Has anyone ever told you that you do not, I repeat do not yell at your boss? It's not written down as a company policy of course, it's just something you do not do." Ron grinned at her. Hermione looked as if smoke was coming out of her nostrils and any second now, she'd be breathing fire.

"You remind me greatly of Norbert at the moment. I hope you're not going to bite me, though. That was a nasty one! It turned all green and everything." Hermione burst out laughing. She just couldn't help it. They were dealing with a serious nutcase and Ron was talking about Norbert resembling to her. Impossible person, that he was!

¤

B


	16. Whispering in her mouth

Chapter 16

"Ron!"

He had been staring at Hermione, not noticing that she was trying to talk to him. This happened a lot lately. He had to focus on the words she was saying because if not, the volume in his head got turned off and all he could see was Hermione talking, not actually hearing the words leaving her mouth.

"About the letters. Tomorrow he's going to send another one. There must be at least hundreds of letters coming in every day. The first question I would like to ask is: Where do the owls drop their deliveries? He must have an owlery or something. Or does Niles just climb out of the window and shovel the letters into a bag? I don't think so."

Now it was Hermione's turn to pace. She took measured steps on the Persian rug. Ron decided to take advantage of the moment and leaned back on the sofa, eyes fixed on the curly haired woman.

"The second question is: Who writes the replies? I for sure haven't noticed Harry too busy with it and if he didn't have anybody replying 'em there'd be a whole lot more pissed fans out there. He must have a secretary to do 'the dirty work'. I guess we'll find out when he gives us the employees list tonight, huh?"

Ron forced himself to answer. "Yeah, probably."

She had no idea how beautiful she looked to him, standing there with the gleaming fire behind her. Business, he reminded himself. Just business. When you two leave this place it will be the same as it used to be. Harry will still be the famous Quiddich star, even if he had enough money to last a lifetime. Hermione will go back to her nice and exciting life with her, no doubt rich boyfriend and he'll be alone. Nothing will change. Except for the fact that maybe they'll get to see each other more often, as he and Harry were back on speaking terms and he was no longer that stupid. No longer stupid enough to think that he was good enough for Hermione Granger.

He had been staring again. Maybe it would just be easier to stop fighting it and give in? Yeah, that would be easier, but if he did, Hermione would, in all probability, never speak to him again. He thought of what it would feel like if his best friend kissed him. He didn't want to make girly sounds but: Yeew! was a pretty accurate description of his feelings. Just imagining Harry kissing him made him feel as if he would rather intentionally put the slug belching curse on himself than have that happen to him.

He hadn't considered Hermione his friend for years now. He had accepted it: he loved her. Not that the words would actually ever leave his mouth in her presence, but yes, he loved her. To be quite exact, he hadn't been thinking of Hermione as a friend since their fourth year. That summer he had realised that the strange feeling, possessing him whenever Krum's name was mentioned in a sentence, was jealousy. He had never told anyone, let alone Hermione. One time he was about to, though. On that night he had asked her to meet him in the Trophy Room. He would have asked Hermione to the ball, but would have let a few words slip, letting her know.

He realised that he had kept staring. He hadn't turned away, he had just kept looking at her and to his horror, he found a small smile had crept to his lips. He was staring and smiling a goofy smile! That was all he needed! Really! Good idea Weasly! Scare your 'friend' away! Never see her. 'Cause if you keep sending her looks like that she'll know about how you really feel about her, even without you telling her!

¤

" I greatly regret interrupting this staring festival, but Harry asked me to so kindly tell you that dinner is being served."

Both of them almost jumped.

"In Merlin's name, Niles! Never do that again!" Hermione shrieked and put a hand on her heart.

"I'm sorry Miss, but I was trying to get your attention for a while now. Me coughing, however, didn't seem to do the trick." Niles smirked at the two of them.

"Alright. Let's get to dinner then." Were Ron's eyes deceiving him or was Hermione blushing?

¤

The dinner was indeed served and looked delicious. Ron could have sworn that he smelt his mom's touch on it. He noticed, too, that there were two extra sets of cutlery and plates on the table.

"Harry? Who else is eating with us?" Rona asked a seemingly, very happy Harry.

"Mh? Oh! Colin and Justin will be joining us for dinner shortly."

Ron sent Hermione a sideways glance at the mention of Colin's name. He was sure that the maniac was Colin and his idea of fun did not include having dinner with the fellow. At that moment Niles appeared with a huge salmon and all thoughts about having dinner with a maniac were instantly wiped out of his mind as he already imagined himself eating the thing.

Seeing Ron's expression Niles proudly announced: "Cooked it myself!"

"Yourself?" Hermione said suspiciously. "I thought Harry had a cook?" She smiled mischievously. Harry's smile faded and he pulled Hermione to the corridor.

"Do not speak about the cook. Got it?" Harry looked relieved. And then suddenly the tensed look was back. "Do not mention Gin either!"

"Harry relax! Ron has no idea she's here, does he?" She studied his face curiously, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Well, no…" He trailed off, baring a guilty expression. "…But imagine me telling him that Gin's here, working for me! He'd go bonkers for sure!"

Hermione giggled. "Yes. I can already imagine the face of a certain Ronald Weasly. Steam coming out of his ears and face as scarlet as the Hogwarts Express."

"Will you stop daydreaming about Ron!" Harry teased.

"I was not daydreaming." She said defensively. "What… hmm…position is she filling?" Hermione asked, the corners of her mouth twitching.

"She's my cook." Harry said calmly.

"Cook?" Hermione snorted with laughter. "Now I understand why Niles cooked the meal. The only thing I remember Gin failing was cooking charms. They, however didn't affect the grades."

"Remember, not a word to Ron about this!"

"Why did you hire her in the first place?" she walked back to the dining room, leaving behind a stuttering Harry.

¤

"Ron! Hermione!" It was Justin. He came in, almost running and hugged the both of them. "It's great to see you! How've you been?"

"Thanks we're great! You?" Hermione answered politely delighted to see her old schoolmate again.

"Like I could complain. The pay is good, though it always could be better…." He said teasingly eyeing Harry.

"He does nothing all day and I pay him for it!"

"Nothing?" Justin put on an insulted face. "He'd get howlers from every part of England if I didn't sort his letters. " Then turning to Harry. "You should come by and see the wonderfully beautiful masterpieces of letters I write to your adoring fans! They simply love me! I mean you!" He grinned at Harry.

"Yeah, maybe I should come to your office some day. See, what you are writing about. One of them might just want me to sign the letter and a difference of handwriting that'd be!" All of them laughed.

"When we were at school I actually wondered if MacGonagall really read your essays or just gave you a good mark 'cause she was unable to read your untidy scrawl!" Hermione shook with laughter as she said this and leaned on Ron's shoulder for support.

"You are telling me that Ron's handwriting was easier to read?"

"Well, Harry…. How do I put it? Yes!"

"That's probably because you practised reading it more!" Harry grinned widely at them. The both of them turned a little pink.

"Oh aren't you two cute!" Justin imitated Lavender and Pravati. "Look Lav! They even blush alike!"

"Oh stuff a sweaty sock in your mouth!" Ron said, punching him lightly on the shoulder. He was starting to think that Justin had turned less geeky after graduation.

"Let's eat!" He announced and stepped towards the table.

"I kind of recall that being my line," Harry said grinning widely at Ron.

"You would've wanted us to have a civil conversation, stomachs empty, not able to think about anything else than the food on the table. Just like you. Torture hungry people." That was not entirely true, though. He's thoughts had been occupied with the woman standing next to him rather than the food. She was looking more and more beautiful by the second. He was chewing his food, staring at her. More accurately he was staring at her until Harry kicked him under the table. As Ron sent him an angry look he noticed Harry was grinning knowingly once again. From that moment on he decided to concentrate on the food in his plate and chewing it.

¤

The dinner continued on and on with five former Hogwarts students chatting, eating and drinking. To be precise four. Colin had been awfully quiet and tense for the whole evening. It seemed to Ron that no one but him seemed to notice this. Then again, he was busying himself with not looking at 'Mione and therefore was constantly looking at someone else. Harry, Colin and Justin were his only options and since 'Mione was talking to Harry and Justin, he had no other chance, but to look towards Colin, who had barely opened his mouth to say anything on the particular evening.

When Niles came to bring the dessert, Ron pulled Hermione from the rest of the group.

"Colin."

"What about him?"

"Have you noticed the look on his face? Major depression. I don't know what else to call it. He's been acting like a real outsider. I'd say he's pondering over something."

"Like what? He already said he would send the letter tomorrow. What's there to think about?"

"Innocent until proven guilty. One thing I learned from Dumbeldore."

"We need proof."

"Right. We have to catch him or make him confess. Otherwise…We are on our own as it is…"

"We'll get him." Hermione reassured him.

"Oy! Lovebirds! You want dessert or not?" Justin called.

The two of them looked at each other then hurried to the table. Both were as pink as the strawberry jelly.

¤

"Okay. That's enough I'm off to bed!" Justin announced at twelve. "Some of us actually have work to do tomorrow!"

"I'll get going too." Colin grumpily muttered.

Harry, Ron and Hermione bid the both of them goodnight and stayed seated at the table. As soon as the two were out of earshot Ron said, without any introduction into the theme what so ever.

"We need the list."

Harry pulled the list from his pocket and handed it to Ron who immediately started scanning it with interest.

"Niles, Justin and Colin. That it?" He said, still looking at the paper, brow furrowed.

Harry sent a nervous glance in Hermiones direction before saying, "Yeah. That's it."

The corners of her mouth were twitching even though she was trying hard to hide it. She ended up smiling goofy.

"What's so funny?" Ron mused.

"Nothing. Let's go, work out plan." She said, almost laughing at the expression on Harry's face. He was acting as if Ron was the father of his girlfriend whom he was afraid to meet.

"I am thinking we have nothing further to discuss. We worked it out pretty well in the library as it is."

Hermione tried thinking about the plan, but could remember nothing except patrolling outside Harry's door. She naturally had been far too busy. Far too busy thinking about Ron. Ron sitting in front of the roaring fire, watching her pacing. She had of course attempted being all professional towards him, but that was proving out to be rather difficult. She kept thinking about him. What was with her? All of her rational thinking, her clear head had gone off somewhere, had gone on a camping trip or something. Before Niles shook the both of them out of their frozen stares she hadn't even realised she was staring. It seemed, thank god for it, that Ron had also fallen into a kind of a trance he seemed to be having quite often these days. Ron was saying something. She practically forced herself to listen to what it was. It felt much better just sitting there looking at him, rather than listening to anything.

"…So we better be off to bed." He finished.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. She had lost the whole story before that sentence. This was exactly what she was thinking about. When Ron was around she just seemed to lose all common sense. It never happened when she was around Harry. Then again, Harry never gave her that tingling feeling in the pit of her stomach when they were in the same room together.

"'Mione? You coming?" She had been doing it again. She had to pull herself together, that was it. "Harry, how 'bout you?"

"I think I'll go torture a cup of cocoa out of Niles."

"Okay. Night then."

"Night."

¤

"With the mood He was in at dinner, I wouldn't risk it." Ron said as they were continuing up the stairs.

"Right."

Hermione was trying to figure out who'd be guarding Harry's sleep first, without letting him know she hadn't been listening. That was most obviously what he had been talking about and the information Hermione needed. She didn't want to ask him straight however. That would bring out his cocky-bossy attitude again and she wasn't sure she could handle it. He made her swallow all her pride. She had just been so used to the fact that she was the smartest one of the three. Back at Hogwarts Harry was their so-to-speak leader and she was the brain of the group. Now things had changed. Harry was no longer the lead figure and she was no longer the brain. It seemed as if Ron had grabbed both "positions". He was in charge of the operation and the both of them were doing the thinking. She felt vulnerable in his company. She had had her share of boyfriends since Hogwarts but no one, and she meant no one had made her knees grow weak and that was just the kind of thing Ron was good at.

"Night." She said and made her way to her room without waiting for Ron to answer.

¤

_At the same time in the kitchen. _

"Niles? Would you be so kind to make me a cup of cocoa?"

"He went to bed. Said he had had a hard day. Cooking the meal and everything." Ginny was still sitting at the kitchen table, reading an old Quiddich Weekly with Harry's smiling picture covering the front and drinking cocoa.

"You read Quiddich Weekly?"

"Well, you are seriously lacking any other kind of news carriers and yes I read QW."

"Really? And why would that be?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.

"Stories of my favourite seeker do occur…" Ginny smiled teasingly.

"And who would that be?"

"Well, it used to be Krum, but since he retired I guess I'd have to say Harry Potter."

"That boy with that horrible scar across his face? I've heard he's really stuck up. Doesn't even bother to contact his closest friends."

"Yes, that's him."

They laughed and Harry stole Ginny's mug of cocoa while she wasn't watching.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"Only if you accept a dare."

"What'd that be?"

"A game of chess."

"You can play chess with Ron. Give it back!"

"A person wants to win every once in a while, doesn't he?"

"What makes you think you are going to win?"

"Years of practise with a certain Ronald Weasly."

"You have obviously forgotten that I am his sister."

"How could I forget that?" Harry laughed.

"Fine. You challenged me. I get the white pieces. Where's your set?" She asked readying for the game.

"Safely put away in my bedroom." A devilish grin played upon Harry's features.

Ginny chose to ignore it. "Fine. We'll go and play there. You do have a table?"

"A table? What would we be doing with a table?"

"We would put the set of chess on it." She replied sweetly, looking him in the eye. "They are not guarding your bedroom are they?"

Harry flinched. "How much do you know?"

"Not enough, but I am also smart enough not to ask you. You'd never let me in on it."

Harry gave her a questioning look.

"I know something is not right. Otherwise you would not have called the Team here, would you?"

"You're right. You'll be safer not knowing." He smiled at her devilishly once again. "Now how about that little trip to my room we were talking about?"

"CHESS. We were talking about chess."

¤

Hermione had got no information out of Ron. If it was her turn to patrol first and she didn't show up, Harry would be defenceless for two hours. Then again, if it was Ron's and she turned up, he'd find out she'd not been listening. She paced the length of her room and finally decided that Harry was primary (well, duh!) and if Ron found out, it would be just her self-esteem that suffered. She took her wand and walked to Harry's door.

¤

She had been on the post for about an hour, when she heard a crieck of a floorboard and therefore, someone approaching from the other end of the corridor. She tried to melt in with the wall as much as she could and ambush Colin. She hadn't even considered that he may have had already heard her. She had just assumed that he'd turn back when he heard somebody moving.

She listened intensely for about five minutes before breathing out heavily. She turned to face the corridor and was roughly pushed to the ground. Her wand was quickly pulled from her hand and thrown a foot away from her.

"Stay still! You son of a bitch! Where's Hermione and what've you done to her?" An intense whisper asked.

She was slightly confused. Her name was still Hermione Granger, right?

"Answer me!" Ron's voice bellowed.

She started laughing. Most definitely a comic situation.

"Hermione?" Ron asked in a barely audible whisper.

She kept laughing until she realised they were in the same position as when they first arrived in the house. Her eyes were now used to the dark and she could see Ron's staring back at her. If the corridor hadn't been so dark she could've sworn she saw the amazing blue of Ron's eyes. She felt mighty uncomfortable indeed. She couldn't mistake her heart beating heavily in her throat for something else. She could no longer ignore the butterflies in her stomach. If he just got up now without kissing her properly she would… That was about as far as she got before Ron kissed her. It was a strange feeling of home. It felt like… strawberries and whip cream…like a sunny day after a week of rain… like getting the perfect gift on Christmas Eve…like…

"What is this racket all about?" Harry opened the door wide, Gin peeping from behind his shoulder.

After the scene the both had witnessed there were a few moments of quiet before Harry's face broke into a huge grin and he said: "Finally!"

"What?" Ron said not entirely recovered yet.

" Hel-looooo! You were kissing Hermione!" Ginny said, face bearing the identical expression to Harry's.

"I wasn't kissing her. I was whispering in her mouth." In Harry's opinion Ron had never looked so red in his life.

B


	17. Playing chess

Chapter 17

"What is this racket all about?" Harry opened the door wide, Gin peeping from behind his shoulder.

After the scene the both had witnessed there were a few moments of quiet before Harry's face broke into a huge grin and he said: "Finally!"

"What?" Ron said not entirely recovered yet.

" Hel-looooo! You were kissing Hermione!" Ginny said, face bearing the identical expression to Harry's.

"I wasn't kissing her. I was whispering in her mouth." In Harry's opinion Ron had never looked so red in his life.

Ron's brain was still not in complete working order after the kiss and so at first he thought he was seeing things. Ginny in Harry's room. He even chuckled a little. The picture, however stayed the same and if he hadn't got a huge brain damage from the kiss he and Hermione had just shared, it most definitely was Ginny standing there. He blinked. She was still standing there. He closed his eyes and opened them again. Nothing changed. Ginny stayed in focus.

"Hi Ron." She said shyly, realising that they were facing a fight.

Ron got up and pulled Hermione along.

"Would you care to explain what on earth you are doing here?" He asked in a deadly quiet voice. "While you're at it, you could also clarify the fact what you were doing in Harry's bedroom in the middle of the night."

"I-… We-…"

"You what?"

"We…we were playing chess." Ginny said and confronted Ron, looking him in the eye.

"Chess? Chess? You were playing chess?" Ron raised his brows in disbelief. "Would you care to share it in details?"

"No. No, I would not." Ginny was facing her furious brother bravely.

"Well, too bad. You're going to." He pushed past Harry and grabbed Ginnys wrist, pulling her into Harry's room. "I really don't want to think about what mom would say."

"Ron…" Harry started.

"You keep your nose out of it! Its non of you're business!"

"Come to think of it, it is." Harry said half-smiling about the comic situation.

"Oh don't worry! I will deal with you later!" And with that, he slammed the door shut.

Harry was dumbstruck. He looked at his shoes, turned round, looked at Hermione and again took interest in his footwear. To be quite exact, he was barefoot.

"I didn't know Ron had a little Molly Weasly hiding inside of him." He mumbled to himself.

"Yeah, neither did I." Hermione answered and the two burst out laughing.

"You want to go get some cocoa," Harry asked "'cause having seen the look in Ron's eyes I don't think I'll be seeing my room tonight."

"Sure. Why not." They strolled towards the spiral staircase. "And Harry, if I may ask just one thing."

"Yes?"

"What were you thinking? Ron looked as if he was going to hex you into next week!"

"I think he is going to do just that. After he is done hexing Ginny, that is." Harry chuckled as they reached the kitchen and started making the cocoa.

"I mean…Harry you know how Ron can get and you still couldn't wait dragging Ginny…"

"Hey! We were just playing chess!"

"Right." Hermione took interest of the Quiddich Weekly that still lay open on the counter.

"We were, not the contrary to what you were doing." Harry grinned, seeing Hermione's cheeks colour red with the memory.

"Well… that… we…it…I…" Were the few words Hermione managed to say.

"You two lay in the corridor making out. I understand perfectly." He grinned even broader.

Hermione tried to retain what was left of her composure. "It was just one kiss," she said studying the article that talked about the Cup that close, that Harry thought her nose must have touched the paper by that time.

"Oh come on Herm! Ginny and me weren't sure at first whether there was somebody out there or not, so we didn't come to the door right away, but when we did… Whoa! Well, let's just say that Ron's excuse failed miserably."

Hermione who had let her head drop on the Quiddich Weekly somewhere between Come on Herm! and Whoa! lifted he gaze to see Harry placing a huge mug of steaming cocoa in front of her and let it fall down on the counter again.

"How long have you known?" She muttered, cheek against the wooden surface, so that the words came out muffled.

"Since fourth year."

Her head snapped up. "No!"

"Yes."

"No!" She let her head down on her hands. "Were we really that obvious?"

"Yes. Still are." Harry sipped a little of his coca. "I said I knew since the fourth year, but I suspected since the third…or was it the second? I don't remember."

"Oh my god! And you never told us you knew…all those years."

"Well, for the two sophisticated people you are, the hints I gave you were more than obvious. You have to work it out yourselves, otherwise you'll always be needing a third party to solve your problems."

"I guess you're right, but I just can't stand it! He loves me, he hates me, he flirts with me, he rejects me, he almost admits how he feels, then screws everything up!" She took a sip of her hot cocoa too fast and almost spat it in Harry's face, before gulping it down.

"Why won't you just tell him?"

"Me? Tell him?" She asked in awe. "I have given him enough hints on the subject, that kiss being the biggest one, so if he doesn't see it now, I'll just have to talk to MacGonagall about having his N.E.W.T.s removed! If he is stupid enough not to notice that I love him…" Her voice faded suddenly and she stared into the face of her best friend, horror struck.

Harry smiled at her. "You said it, not me."

"I know I said it! Coming from you it'd be disgusting!" She snapped and shook her head violently.

"Enough of me and Ron! You want to tell me what you and Ginny were doing in your bedroom?" She had a wicked grin covering her face as she said this.

Now it was Harry's turn to change colour. (A/N: By that I mean his face!)

"As I said before, we were playing chess." Harry said confidently.

"As I said before: RIGHT!" She gulped down more of the cocoa and started drawing patterns on the counter. " Are you sure there was nothing but chess going on in there?" She asked casually, trying hard not to grin.

"As much as I would have wished for something to happen, nothing happened, honestly."

"Why did you hire Gin in the first place? You must have known she wouldn't qualify as cook." Harry didn't say anything, but kept staring in his mug. "You still like her, don't you?" Hermione asked in a serious voice. She was pretty convinced Harry wasn't going to admit it, as he had said nothing for a few minutes.

"No. I'm in love with her."

Hermione stared at him, mouth hanging open.

"What?" Harry laughed. "Just because Ron has trouble getting the words out, when it comes to you, it doesn't mean that I do."

"Well, I hope she's still alive after Ron's done with her."

"Me too."

¤

Hermione didn't remember when she had gone to bed, but when she woke up, it was nine o'clock. She took a shower, put on her jeans and dark blue sweatshirt and headed down to breakfast. As she walked down the stairs, she pictured different ways to say good morning to the various figures, she imagined, would be sitting at the table. There was the one where Ron scooped her into his arms and the one where they all sat unhappily, but neither of them prepared her for what was coming.

She stepped into the dining room, where Harry and Ginny were chatting merrily and Ron was filling in one of his reports (A/N: See! I'm not hopeless! After five I think it was five reviews I can write reports! Yay!), drinking coffee. She stood in the doorway silently, almost waiting for Ron to notice her. Harry and Ginny were too absorbed playing footsie under the table and laughing at each other's silly jokes. _Young love! _Hermione thought to herself as she declared "Morning!" in a happy tone.

Harry and Gin stopped laughing for a moment, said morning back to her and continued as if nothing had happened. But it was not their behaviour that upset her. It was Ron's. When she had greeted him in a happy sort of voice he had not even lifted his head to look at her, but kept filling out his report and almost grunted "Morning," back at her.

She sat down, reached for a piece of toast and started buttering it. Harry and Gin weren't paying attention and she couldn't really blame them. It looked as if the two had just survived a shipwreck and were the only survivors on a deserted island.

"I hope you weren't too hard on her."

"Oh no, I wasn't" he replied sarcastically.

"She is a grown-up and capable of making her own decisions, you know."

"She told me the exact same thing last night!"

"And you left her alone, just like that? No nagging whatsoever?"

Ron's head jerked up from the report. "I didn't nag on her!" One of his eyes seemed a little bluish.

"Ron! Did you and Harry have a fight! I can't believe you two!"

Ron quickly glanced in Ginny and Harry's direction. "Keep it down, will ya?" But Hermione was far from quiet when she said: "Harry smacked you! I can't believe him!"

"It was Gin." Ron murmured to himself.

"What! Come again? Little Ginerva Weasly gave you a black eye?" Hermione almost fell off her chair, laughing.

"Well, I must admit she had the perfect right to do so." He said reluctantly.

"When did this happen?" Asked a somewhat calmer Hermione, still sending Ginny unconvinced looks.

"Right after I had yelled at her for bitching around with Harry." Ron said bitterly.

"You didn't!" Exclaimed Hermione; hardly believing that Ron could come up with something that cruel. Then again she did believe it, remembering what he had said about her when they were in their first year.

¤

B


	18. The Untouchable

Chapter 18

Ron finished his report and turned to a completely amazed Hermione who was still staring at his eye, utter disbelief covering her beautiful features.

"'Mione? Stop. You're making me blush," he said playfully and tried to smirk but without any luck – the blue spot on his face was letting him know it was still there.

"Uh? Um, sorry." She looked at her double-buttered toast and then looked up to Ron once more. "So, you have talked to Harry? You guys are alright, right? You are talking, right? I mean, you' re not angry, right? I'm right, right?"

"No, no, no, no and let's see - NO!" he got up, grabbed his mug of coffee and announced that he and Harry needed to talk. The two of them headed off towards Harry's study and left behind an angry and frustrated Ginny and a calm Hermione, who had already silently decided that it was none of her business and that it would probably be better if the two sorted things out.

"Ron you stupid prat! It's Harry's business, and mine not yours! I'm a grown-up now! I can do what I want!" the door slammed shut and Ginny just stood there facing the door.

"They are going to kill each other." She said to the door, rather than to Hermione.

"Trust me, they're not. Boys are boys. It doesn't matter that they claim they have grown up and everything. The truth is, they are and always will be boys on the inside." Hermione was finishing her second toast and helped herself to more coffee.

"Ron, being your older brother, feels the need to protect you and Harry is too in love to give in. With any luck, one of them will have a black eye. Or in Ron's case two. Come to think of it, I can't understand why Ron hasn't fixed his already. We've had the special training and should be able to treat even the victims of a curse or other severe damages." She lifted the coffee cup to her lips.

"He probably wanted to impress you." Ginny giggled, somewhat relived to hear Hermiones point of view.

She almost choked on her coffee. "He so did not!" She felt blush creeping up on her cheeks.

"You should've seen you two last night. If we hadn't spoiled it, Ron would've, in all probability…"

"Shut up." Hermione tried to look casual, picking an orange from the fruit basket, but failed - her cheeks looked as if they were on fire.

"You know Ron has liked you since…"

"Shut up, I said."

"You two are just too obvious to the rest of the world…"

"Gin, would you be so kind to tell me what part of shut up did you not understand? Was it the shut or the up? Or just maybe, you don't hear well? You should go and see a mediwizard about those hearing problems." She gulped down some more black coffee that she usually hated and preferred with cream and sugar.

"Okay. Keep your hair on woman!" Ginny said, raising her hands in sign of surrendering. "If you don't want to tell me what exactly was THAT supposed to mean, then you could at least tell me what you are doing here? I mean, it's not some kind of a Dream Team reunion of three years, I know that much and seeing you two looking all professional, I presume you are working. The question that I wanted to ask was: Is Harry in trouble?"

Hermione eyed her friend seriously. She was intitled to know, but Harry would probably want to keep her out of it.

"I can't tell you."

"That proves me right. He is in trouble. Knowing the three of you have probably worked out some I'd-rather-die-than-tell promise, which you are not going to back out of, am I right?"

"Yes…well…yes. I can't tell you. It's a… I can't tell you." Hermione finished desperately.

"So you work with Ron?"

"How did you kn… I mean…No!" Hermione sputtered.

"Come on Herms! You'd be discussing the wonderful aspects of your job if it wasn't something secret, not eating an orange. Besides the two of you look somewhat of mysterious. I can't explain it." She played with the loose thread on the sleeve of her jumper, as if dreading the words that escaped her mouth moments later. "Is it… Voldemort? If it were you could put the same spell on Harry that was put on Lily and James years ago and make me the secretkeeper. I'd never tell… die with the secret if I had to…"

"It's not Voldemort." Hermione said quietly.

The tension in the room had thickened as the conversation took darker shades. Ginny looked up to Hermione who was wearing a determined expression.

"Don't worry. We'll look after him."

"It's not Harry I'm worried about. I'm afraid you'll be too preoccupied with protecting him than worrying about your own safety. Look after Ron for me." Tears were making their way down Ginny's cheeks as she was saying this.

"I will, don't worry .I will." The two of them hugged just as two of the Dream Trio walked in.

"Whoa! Are we interrupting some girl-bonding moment here, or what?" The words came out of the mouth of a black-eyed Ronald Weasly.

Ginny quickly wiped the tears that had escaped her eyes and smiled at the two amazed men.

"Ne. Just girl talk, that's it." Then seeing Harry's left eye. "Harry! My God! Are you alright?" She hurried over and examined the bluish spot that was quickly turning lilac. She whispered simple healing charm and the eye healed like magic.

"You'll have to thank your brother for inflicting injuries on your boyfriend."

"My boyfriend? " Then turning to Ron. "Indeed. Thank you Ronald."

"You actually thanked him for hitting me, are you aware of that?" Harry asked, a little bewildered.

"Yes, well, dragging a young girl to your bedroom late at night was most certainly not a nice thing to do, don't you agree with me?"

They headed out of the room, chatting and left Ron and Hermione standing in the middle of the dining room.

This was the time to say something about what happened the night before and Ron knew it. He wanted to tell her how he felt and why he had done it, but couldn't bring himself to it.

One of them had to say something and Hermione knew it. She wanted to tell Ron how it had felt for her, wanted to ask him why it had happened, but waited for him to speak first. When he finally spoke, what came out was definitely not what she had expected it to be.

"We'd better get back to work." Ron said slowly and in a calm voice, just as if nothing had happened between them the night before. "I talked to Justin this morning and he agreed not to open the letters before we pay him a visit. He was, naturally, a little curious so I had to tell him the whole thing about why we were here, but seeing that the guy is Colin, he's not a thereat to Harry."

"I don't trust him." Even Hermione didn't know where that came from. One moment she was deep in thought about the kiss and the next, she just blurted it out.

"What do you mean, you don't trust him? He's been more than helpful with the letter business and friendly to top it all." Ron seemed irritated by her remark.

"I don't trust him, that's all. I have a funny feeling about all of this… I know I don't usually go around doing things by my gut feeling, but this time, it's different. It's like… I don't know… Maybe this is my one and only true prediction, just like Trelawney only predicted the future twice… I stand by what I've just said. I do not trust Justin."

Ron eyed her for a few moments and then said: "Alright. It's not illegal to part opinions with your boss. You stick to how you feel, and I'll stick to how I feel. Now let's get to Justin's cupboard under the stairs, as he so kindly calls it."

¤

They arrived at the office door and knocked. "Come in, come in!" Justin called jovially.

They stepped in and found out that the office resembled more to a huge bedroom, which it actually was. The room was separated into two parts: an office and a bedroom. The place was as neat as could be: papers were in nice piles, the room smelled of cleanness and ink - most of the papers stacked were letters.

"So, get the party started, as the muggle expression goes, eh?"

"Yeah." Ron looked around the room. "Where the owls drop the deliveries?"

"Well, They drop 'em at the front door and Niles just shovels 'em into a bag."

Ron and Hermione shared a surprised glance.

"No, I'm just kidding. I overheard you two talking last night. I didn't eavesdrop if that's what you're worried about. I just overheard that one sentence. Ne. Actually they drop 'em at the owlery Harry has in the other end of the house and Colin or me usually pick up the bag."

"So Niles has no contact with the bag or its contains?" Hermione questioned curiously.

"No, just me and Colin. You don't think we're suspects do you?" He was very pale all of the sudden. "'Cause you know we love Harry as if he was our own brother and would never…"

"No, Justin. We don't suspect you or Colin. " Hermione explained as if the thought had just crossed her mind that either of them could have sent the letters and dismissed it with soft laughter.

"Uh. For a second there I was afraid that you came here to think of a way to bust me." He laughed nervously.

"Justin? The letters?" Ron reminded him arching an eyebrow at his odd behaviour.

"Right, right. Here they are. I haven't opened the bag since Colin brought it up here this morning." He turned the bag upside down and the letters fell out. There had to be at least 500 of them.

"Right. Let's get to work!" Ron said enthusiastic notes echoing in his voice.

¤

_An hour and ten letters later. _

"And you do this every day?" Ron asked dispirited.

"Yep. Come on! You're not tired yet, are you?"

"I must admit that filling in the reports and answering the silly questions was better. Reading: _Harry! I love you!_ Written in 12 different languages is tiring." Hermione answered in the same tone as Ron.

Justin hummed merrily and kept reading the letters with enthusiasm neither Ron or Hermione shared.

After twenty minutes Ron announced: "Here it is." And pulled out an envelope with familiar looking handwriting covering the front. "That's library for us, 'Mione. Thanks for all your help Justin."

"Yea, no problem."

¤

_Dear Ron and Hermione,_

_Yes it is I, sending the letter as I promised. I titled it the way I did 'cause I'm sure that you are not going to show it to Harry. Am I right? Especially now that he and Ginny have gotten to be so close once again… Nice, isn't it? I know you have no idea whatsoever… you don't know who I am. But I know who you are...yes…I know your weaknesses, I know how you are going to act in different situations…I can see you even when you are sure that I can't. Even when you think that nobody can see you… Yesterday, at the library…when you got my last letter…I saw you then. But you already figured it out…that I could get in…and nobody saw me… by now you have probably figured it out that I live in this house, that I'm the person you have probably said' Good Morning' to this very same morning… so who am I? Justin? Colin? Niles? Or maybe Ginny? _

_Ponder over that last line._

_Who am I?_

_Untouchable_

¤


	19. Insufferable, selfish, slimy

Chapter 19

Ron finished reading and looked helplessly towards Hermione. _Just like the old days,_ she thought. It wasn't a bad feeling. She had to admit she even kind of enjoyed it – Ron wasn't the kind of boss that'd take the control in his hands and hear no opinions of others. Okay so she liked it a lot. She couldn't help it – every time Ron even as glanced in her direction little shivers made their way down her spine. It was completely unprofessional, irresponsible and nevertheless awful thing to be feeling at a time like this, but she liked it. It wasn't right! She was supposed to be worried about Harry, worried about his well-being and not think about Ron's lips on hers… But she did. Constantly. Ever since breakfast. To be exact she had been thinking about him all night long.

What was it that they had? Ron was flirting with her, no doubt about that, but that was just the way Ron worked. She had put up with it ever since their fifth year. Back at school, girls had almost been throwing themselves at him! Ron this and Ron that! It seemed as if they liked the way he said Bloody hell! and cursed in other ways she would rather not name. He did take advantage of it and the girls learned their lesson, but along came new and even prettier. He was the kind of guy mothers used to warn you about: That boy is nothing but trouble! (A/N: Imagine that said in a motherly way, voice resembling to nagging! Wow, that had an effect! "Nice" memories just came flooding back!)

Every year (not to mention always near their exams) the same fiasco repeated itself: They would suspect, investigate, get themselves in a whole lot of trouble and win a bunch of points for Gryffindor. She had of course been happy that Gryffindor won and everything, but the way otherwise perfectly normal girls just hanged to Ron's neck for the whole ride back to Kings Cross at the end of the year, quite frankly, pissed her off! There are limitations to showing affection towards one another in public and snogging in front of your friends is way off those limits! Well, It wasn't exactly snogging, she had to admit, just hugging, but still it pissed her off!

_You know why…_ a little voice in the back of her head was saying.

**_No! It isn't the way you think it is! _** Her common sense argued**. _I do not like Ron! We are friends! That is as far as it goes!_**

_Then what was that all about last night? Friends don't just snog in the middle of the hallway, you know…_

**He was just... just…whispering in my mouth?**

_ ¤ _

"We have to do something, but what?" He looked straight at Hermione, who was having a hard time focusing her thoughts. "We could of course cast the Fidelius on Harry and he'd be safe. You could be the secret keeper. But then again, Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, the famous seeker for England's National Quiddich Team can't just disappear off the face of the earth! And even if he did disappear and no major search parties were sent out and the magical community accepted it…after a few…hundred years, we'd still have a maniac on the loose. What does this guy want, anyway? Harry to disappear from the magical community? That just can't be done! Where'd he go? Live with Dudley?" He pulled his hand through his hair and stood up, standing by the fire.

"I don't think Dudley'd be too happy with that. " Hermione said thoughtfully, her mind still preoccupied with the thoughts of the previous night.

Ron let out a small chuckle. "Yes, I suppose you're right. He has never told us what he wants. Okay, that corpse in a coffin stuff seemed pretty convincing at the time, but if he can already get in then why wouldn't he just go and finish Harry off? No. He's playing with us. It's not Harry's corpse in a coffin he wants if you ask me. It has got to be something else." He turned towards the table and searched through the piles of paper that were still unorganised after the Untouchable had been in to pay them a visit.

"Desperate measures. Harry's house has been unapparateble ever since I arrived so that's taken care of. I'll cut him off the Floo network as soon as possible. That leaves only two ways to get in and that's the muggle way and the infamous Portkey. Several locking spells in different order should do the trick on the doors and windows. If our "friend" tries to guess 'em, it'll take him at least 24 hours and by that time I'd like to think we would have noticed it. So the slim chance of the loony being an outsider is dealt with. Now all we have to worry about are the people inside. I suggest we make a list of people and what we have noticed. Any unusual behaviour, alibis for different times and places, references to wanting Harry wiped out should be remarked. Characterisation in general, that means. Then we'll once more scan through the letters and look for clues. And I want a thorough background check on all of them. When all of this is done we'll make a trust and trust not list. What do you think?"

Hermione stared at Ron in awe. Now she understood how he had made it head of the DMD.

"What is it? " Asked Ron curiously. "Do I have some dirt on my nose or something?" He chuckled softly and sent Hermione an amused look.

"Now I understand why They made you head of DMD." She clamped a hand over her mouth. Since when did she word her thoughts?

"Thanks." He said. She thought she saw him blush a little before he turned his gaze back to the fire, but she wasn't sure.

Oh why, why, why, had she been so stupid to blurt it out like that! Sure, it was a compliment on his address and friends are allowed to compliment each other, but the problem was, she didn't know where to draw the line. Before last night she could've just said that they're friends, but after that kiss… Why are you still thinking about the kiss anyway? You are a grown up for God's sake! Kisses come and go? So what if he kissed you? It was probably just some kind of a male reflex you have no idea exists. Why are you still spending all this time thinking about one meaningless kiss? That's because it wasn't meaningless to you. You have been in love with that guy since the second year and it obviously meant something to you! You obviously are still in love with him, aren't you?

That's it! She was not letting her heart get the best of her brain, because under the circumstances her brain was needed instead of her heart.

"Right, let's get to work, then!" She said enthusiastically.

¤

They had sorted out the documents, cut Harry off the Floo network, put different locking charms on his windows and doors and were currently working on the characterisation.

"All done." Announced Ron and yawned, turning his gaze onto a writing, mumbling-to-herself Hermione. Thoughts like: 'God, she's beautiful!' and 'I wonder if she'd mind if I kissed her?' conquered his mind.

"Okay. Finished. Let's compare!" She said happily startling Ron out of his dreamy- state, which he thought, was a good thing, because he seriously doubted the would've gotten any work done if he had given in and done something the both of them would have regretted.

"So you don't think it's Colin." Ron said matter-of-factly.

"So you think it is Colin." She replied in the same tone.

"We part opinions, that's never good, as Harry would say."

"He said that?" She asked disbelief covering her beautiful features.

"On more than one occasion." Ron grinned at her over the table.

"Talking about Harry, where is he? Usually, as I've noticed he comes over or at least sends Niles to inform us about dinner being ready and it is well over dinner time by now. We didn't even get lunch! I suppose he is too busy seducing your sister." She tried to keep on a straight face as Ron's eyes flashed and became a shade darker.

"Do not ever mention the words: Harry, seduce, my, sister in the same sentence."

Hermione couldn't help, but laugh. Ron was helplessly funny when he was angry. His wonderfully blue eyes even bluer, his hair spiked up from constantly pulling his hand through them and his cheeks Weasly red. The both of them laughed and laughed. It felt good, laughing with Ron. It was like when they were at Hogwarts. Friends. A little flirty at times, but still friends. Angry a lot, but still friends. That is, until he doesn't all of the sudden, as if lightning struck him, turn serious and tell you, you had best get back to work, which was exactly what Ron did. She stopped laughing and felt the strange friend-and-maybe-something-more bond between them break and lowered her head, writing again.

¤

If she had kept laughing like that he would have kissed her, that one was certain. It should be illegal to laugh like that! It made the most innocent guy, who was not in the least bit attracted to the woman sitting in front of him, want to kiss her. (A/N: That's right Ron! Keep telling yourself that! The truth is out there and we know it!) He had been too harsh on her, but if he had kissed her again there'd be no turning back. His mind was already too preoccupied with thinking about Hermione so that he couldn't think straight and he badly needed his common sense back to get the Untouchable or whatever his/her name was.

She had hung her head low and was now working silently, not even as breathing louder, as if afraid to disturb him. He felt guilt penetrating in him as he watched her. He was about to apologise when her head snapped up.

"Ron Weasly! How dare you! I know you are my boss and everything, but you have no right to! We were having a perfectly nice, friendly moment! How dare you ruin it!" She got up and towered over him. "Are you on some kind of a twisted opinion, that since you're my superior you cannot be my friend." She walked to his side of the table, voice thundering so Ron thought it best to get up, just to even the odds. His height however, failed to scare a furious Hermione Granger. "You insufferable, selfish, slimy…" She was now poking him in the chest with her index finger. "… g-i-t! Ron what in Heavens name are you doing?" He had flopped her over his shoulder and was now quickly advancing towards the door of the library.

"Hermione, I think you need rest. You are starting to physically harm your boss. That's never a good sign. Imagine what Snape or MacGonagall would've done if you poked them in the chest with that sharp finger of yours?"

She was laughing again. She just couldn't help it. He made her laugh, although she was simply furious with him!

"I am guessing MacGonagall would have froze in mid-sentence and sent you to the hospital wing."

"And Snape?"

"He would've hexed you. Afterall, you were a Gryffindor, were you not. And Gryffindors were to be treated in the worst possible way. Change of subject. I heard Snape retired."

"Really?" They were now making their way to the second floor. "Do you know who took his place?"

"Ne. But I heard the new Potions Master is a woman, so the term Potions Master is not that accurate." They stopped in front of Hermione's bedroom door and put her down. "You want me to come and tuck you in?" He asked, that all-known mischievous grin covering his face.

Hermione felt her knees go weak and almost reached out towards Ron to steady her. "No, I think I'll be fine."

Ron didn't seem in the least bit disappointed. "Okay. I'll just come and wake you up in the morning then." He planted a kiss on her cheek and whispered "Good night", into her ear, making her skin tingle where his breath touched it.

"'G'Night", she called after him and closed the door to her room.

¤


	20. Allergic to Mr Weasly

Chapter 20

Hermione closed the door of her room and sighed.

What was it about her and Ron? They had been flirting for ages. They had been flirting, even before the kids their age knew what the word meant. Hell, they had been flirting even before they actually knew what flirting was. And now…well now he was doing that again! He was charming her in a way he needed no actual magic for. And he knew it worked, didn't he? She was falling for him again. Wait! She wasn't. She had never stopped loving him, so technically she couldn't be falling, right?

_And what was that whole thing in the corridor the other night? He had…he… but_…_  
Hermione Granger stuttering in her own thoughts! That's a first! _

_NO! Thou shall not think about Ronald Weasly! Understood?_

She bent down and started to make her bed when suddenly feeling, rather than seeing, another presence in the room. She straightened up, adrenaline pumping through her veins and reached for her wand. When someones hand landed on her shoulder from behind, she quickly swung around and shouted: "_Petrificus Totalus!"_

Seconds later she faced a petrified Ron, who was giving her a rather glareish look, or was at least trying, since the body-binding spell gave him little chance to do so.

She smiled sweetly. "Oh! Sorry Ron! Didn't realise it was you!"

Ron glared at her some more, but lost his balance as Hermione poked him in the chest with her finger. The glare was replaced by panic, as he toppled onto the bed. Hermione decided that he looked too helpless like that and removed the spell with a flick of her wand.

She had expected Ron to give her a lecture about not hexing her boss, but instead his face was once again showing her that mischievous grin of his.

"For a moment there I thought you were going to take advantage of me in this… position of total helplessness."

"In your dreams Ron!" She said, offering her hand to pull him up.

Ron took her hand. "Well, in my dreams…" Instead of getting up he pulled her down on top of him. "…it happens quite often." He rolled her underneath him.

_See this is exactly what I was talking about earlier. If this is not flirting, then what is? This is too obvious… even for Ron! This is almost beyond flirting! This is…_

Her brain didn't have more time to process the thoughts she was having, because Ron had leaned in closer and now their lips were only inches apart.

"I'm sorry Ms. Ganger! I totally forgot about you and Mr. Weasly!" Niles had just walked in. "Oh… I'll…come back later…I'll just go now…" He closed the door behind him and left, but the moment was already ruined. Ron got up and pulled his hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… Actually I came to tell you that I'm going to take the first watch." He looked somewhat nervous as Hermione got up and straightened her clothes.

"Yeah, fine. Come wake me up, when it's my turn."

"Yeah. I'll just hope your wand is out of your reach." He grinned at her, having obviously gained his composure and left, muttering, "Good night", when closing the door.

If Ron had gotten back to normal in a matter of seconds then Hermione was still shaken by he whole 'thing'. Ron was definitely doing something to her mind and that was far from good. Whenever they were closer than one meter from each other, she got butterflies in her stomach and could swear that she must have been allergic to his touch. Whenever they accidentally brushed hands, she could just feel the tingling run all over her body. This was far from normal and should not be happening. She should be as cool as she was when she was with Harry. She could handle it, when she and Ron were meters away and there was someone else in the room with them. On such occasions, he acted like a perfect gentleman. Okay, so not gentleman, but still all Ronnish, instead of flirting with her. She had to draw the line. No flirting with Ron, unless he said that he lo… Wait! That'll never happen. It's just her mixed up emotions. It was just Ron's way of dealing with stress and since there was no other female around, other than her and Ginny, he just had to settle for her. It would be so much easier if he were gay! With that last knowledgeable thought she fell asleep.

¤

Ron closed the door to his room and leaned against it. He was losing it! What was that all about? Pulling her down on the bed with him… almost kissing her…thinking about… no…stop it! That was sheer insanity! If somebody had asked him to testifybefore the Wizengamot, he would have claimed temporary insanity.

He was supposed to walk in, tell her in a business-like manner that he'd take the first watch and ask that, would she, so kindly take the second, wish goodnight, and walk out. Almost kissing and…thinking to do god-knows-what-else with her, was never part of the plan. He was supposed to professional, take responsibility for his actions and keep his bloody hands away from her. With Hermione around that seemed like the most difficult task in the whole wide world. Didn't she know what she did to him? Just by standing there, smiling and throwing those witty comments at him. The moment, she said 'In your dreams Ron', was the moment he lost it. He lost his mind. Totally and completely. And the worst thing was – he liked it. He wished he could just be as friendly with no other intentions towards her, as Harry was.

Harry. He should be in the corridor, not leaning against the door, dreaming about Hermione.

¤

After two hours of patrolling, rather pacing, back and forth in front of Harry's doorstep, nothing had happened. He was so bored that he even tried to listen in on, whether Ginny was in Harry's room or not, but he didn't hear a sound. That morning Harry had convinced him that he had nothing but good intentions towards his sister. He had decided it was time to let Gin go and stop being that overprotective towards her. His brothers would do that for him.

He checked his watch. It was time to go, wake up Hermione. He almost groaned at the though of going to her room, finding her asleep there in that little thing she called a night-gown. It was more of a shirt…a way too short T-shirt that in Ron's very imaginative mind, when it came to Hermione, showed more legs than was good for his health to see.

He walked to the door and opened it slowly. He stepped in and walked to the bed, only to find Hermione fast asleep with moonlight playing on her face. He would wake her up now. Any second now, he would say: 'Hemione, it's time to wake up', in his most professional voice and give his tired body some well-deserved rest. He would shake her arm now. Any moment now. Very soon, he'd just give her a few more minutes. He stood there, mesmerised, watching her sleep.

Forget it! He just couldn't do it! He turned away, before he could come up with another silly thing to do…like kissing her, and walked out of the door, closing it behind him. As he stepped out, he almost run into Niles, who had obviously been down to the kitchen to make hot coca for himself, as Ron could seconds later feel, the hot liquid all over his shirt.

" I'm sorry sir. I'll get it washed in a moment."

"Ne, ne. It's all right. " Ron flicked his wand against it and the stain was removed, instantly.

Niles bid him goodnight and walked back to his room, slightly surprised about what he had just seen.

Ron muttered "Muggels"(Spellchecker offering: Muggers), and started to make his way back to Harry's door when he heard a small noise from inside Hermiones room. He stood still, holding his breath, wondering whether he should bustle in. The noise failed repeat itself in ten minutes, so he walked to Harry's door to keep watch once again.

¤

Hermione woke to the silent summer voices of birds singing outside her window and bright sunlight hitting her face. She opened her eyes reluctantly, fully waking from her beautiful dream. The dream had been about Ron. He had come in and looked at her… She shook it off. It was morning and no stupid fantasy/dreams were allowed! It was morning! Strangely she didn't remember waking up and patrolling every two hours. Something had probably happened and she had been sleeping! What if Ron and Harry are... No, it can't be! It just can't! She jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand from the nightstand. She was about to take off when she noticed something that hadn't been there in the evening, when she fell asleep. An envelope. She hesitated, but slit it open nonetheless. Out came a drawing. The woman on the drawing was her, sleeping. Hermione dropped it and it glided onto the floor, light as a feather. It took her a few moments to realise what she had been so nervous and worried about before she found her 'present', but when she did she grabbed the drawing and sped to Harry's room.

_No signs of fighting_, her brain registered, as she opened the door. The bed was made and hadn't been slept in. She turned on her heel and headed towards Ron's quarters. For a moment she found herself thinking whether she should knock to avoid finding Ron with little or no clothing at all. She could almost laugh at herself for doing that, if there wasn't the worry of finding Ron and Harry dead somewhere. She reached the door and opened it. Ron's bed hadn't been slept in either.

She searched the whole of the second floor, but didn't meet a soul. All the rooms looked like they hadn't been used, except Ginny's. It was still messy and showed signs that somebody had actually been sleeping in it.

She rushed down the stairs, almost braking her foot in the process and reached the dining room doors. She pushed open the double doors expecting to find a bloodbath of some sort, but instead she walked into a perfectly normal moment - Harry, Ginny, Justin, Colin and Ron sitting at the table having breakfast. She just stood there, panting, in her miniature night-gown, her hair a huge mass of curls hanging down her shoulders, her wand raised and clutching the now crumpled drawing of herself in the other.

Nobody made the slightest sound. They were staring at her, wide-eyed, until Colin let out an approving whistle and Ron smacked him hard on the arm.

"Ron…we…need…to…talk." She panted out.

Ron, unable to speak, nodded and got up, leading Hermione back to the living room.

"What has he got that I haven't?" Colin asked with mock surprise plastered to his face.

"It's more like what you have got." Justin said grinning, pointing at his camera.

¤

B


	21. The Drawing

Chapter 21

A/N: Okay, here we are again. I think I need to explain a few things before we get to the story. **Sentences written in bold are the Hermione we know – smart, know-it-all, overwhelmed with common sense. **_And the sentences written in italic are that other side of her that we rarely meet._ And 'normal' sentences are, well, normal sentences.

"Ron…we…need…to…talk." She panted out.

Ron, unable to speak, nodded and got up, leading Hermione back to the living room.

"What has he got that I haven't?" Colin asked with mock surprise plastered to his face.

"It's more like what you have got." Justin said grinning; pointing at his camera that still hung from his neck.

¤

"Ron…" She managed to breathe once more. "…We have a problem."

Ron nodded eyeing her from head to toe. "I mean…um…what problem?" He was completely unable to think with Hermione standing in front of him, half-naked.

"This." She almost shoved the drawing in his face.

"This is your problem? Hermione if you wanted be alone all you had to do was ask…" He said, giving her that devilish look again. Hermione decided to keep her head clear, but was failing more with every second that passed.

"I didn't draw this… I found it on my nightstand this morning… Now I know you are not too good at arts and can barely write understandably so I take it wasn't you who drew this, or was it?"

"You mean…?" He asked in utter disbelief.

"Yes. The Untouchable was in my room." She only now understood how terrible it actually felt. She shuddered at the thought of it.

"GODDAMIT!" He used a few juicier words to comment on the situation and finally said: Library. Now. Emergency meeting." Ron announced in an angry and pained voice.

**No. Not pained. Ron wouldn't be worried and pained over that…over her… okay, so he'd be worried, that's for sure. He's allowed to be worried, right? They're friends after all…** _Granger! Give it up!_ _You crossed the friends line already, remember? Snog in hallway, sound familiar? _**We were not snogging…he was just… **_Okay. Stop. So there is no good way to say this, but SHUT UP! Whispering in someone's mouth? Hello! That term does not exist! You were kissing! Get it through that thick layer of denial, will you! _**But… **_No! Shut up! You are not allowed to speak! You got us in trouble last time, now it's my turn to try!_

"'Mione? You coming?"

_Shit. _She had been thinking too long. **We are going to continue this later, you know.**_ Oh honestly! Give it up! We want Ron and that's final! _**But he's our boss!**

_So what! That doesn't matter! You'll just do your part, and I'll do mine._** What's my part?**_ That's easy! All you have to do is shut up!_

¤

They entered the library and Ron led the way through the maze of bookshelves. He stopped at the fireplace, rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned towards Hermione, who was now awkwardly standing in front of the sofa, holding the drawing in one hand and her wand in the other. Not to mention, her shoulders were bare, except for the spaghetti-like threads that held the night-gown up, that was intoxicatingly short for Ron to look at. He allowed himself the pleasure to look at her, from head to toe, and then tuned on the rational Ron station (A/N: I never knew it existed, up until now, of course).

"When did you find it?" He asked, blue eyes looking into her brown ones.

"This morning when I woke up."

"Specify."

"I don't even know what time it is," She said apologetically.

"Okay. Just tell me what you do remember."

"I dream…I feel sun on my face…I open eyes…I start to think why I didn't patrol…Why you never woke me up… I get up…Grab wand…See envelope…Open it… See drawing…Run around frantically, trying to locate the two dead bodies of my best friends and have my revenge…Run downstairs…Shock the hell out of all the people at breakfast… I think that's more or less it…" She was now looking at her bare feet, finding her toes more than interesting.

It had just struck her that she might not have seen the sunlight ever again, might not have breathed again, if their 'friend' had been in a bad mood. She felt the tears stinging in her eyes as she tried to hold them back and show Ron that she was not a girly giggly person who just cried because of everything. She was an Unspeakable and was not supposed to be soft. Nothing had really happened, now had it? He had just drawn a picture of her. Like that's a crime! She felt the first few tears dripping from her eyes. She had to get away! She was going to cry, that was inevitable, but she had to get away from Ron! She hated to think what he'd write in the report. She turned on her heel and was about to run when Ron turned her round and hugged her. She had not expected it to happen. She had just wanted to get away, be alone and cry, but now he was holding her. He didn't say anything, just let her cry.

How was she supposed to do something, not to mention run, when the sexiest man on earth was hugging her like that? Okay, rewind. She hadn't meant to think that. Surely she would find someone far sexier. Let's think…Hmm… She had liked Gilderoy Lockhart in her second year, but he was a coward. Okay, so being a coward would take a few points off from being sexy, but still… there had to be someone far more attractive…

"Herms, you okay?" Rona asked worried and cut into her thoughts.

She lifted her head and looked up at him. She had to look terrible. Just like the women on Muggle films – mascara all over her face. Wait! She didn't wear mascara, on that particular morning anyway. And sitting on the couch, hugging a woman with eyes red from crying had to be so much better that hugging a woman with mascara all over her face and eyes red from crying. Sitting on the couch? When did they get on the couch? That was, in all probability, the last reasonable, or remotely reasonable thought she held on to. All she could remember was that one moment she was wondering how they got to sit on the sofa and the next she was kissing Ron. Kissing Ron like there was no tomorrow, to be accurate. She wasn't sure who had started it and she didn't care. All she knew was that it was great. It sent little electric waves all over her body and paralysed her brain activity, which was welcomed. Even the smartest of people need time off from being smart and as she had just discovered keeping occupied with Ron, in the activities that involved just the two of them, was the best cure for losing complete awareness of the world and time surrounding them. She wasn't sue when it happened, but she found herself sitting in his lap, when somebody coughed and said: "We were just wondering where you went and if you wanted some breakfast, but I can see you are successfully sucking the life out of each other and will not be needing anything." Then two people laughed.

Hermione's head snapped up. She quickly slid herself off of Ron's lap and jumped to her feet. "This is not what it looks like."

"Oh yeah?" Colin asked amusement covering his features.

"I know it looks like we were kissing, but actually…"

"You were kissing! 'Cause it looked from here as if you were whispering in each others mouth!" Justin said and the two of them burst into laughter, seeing her troubled expression.

Hermione decided that being in the same room with Ron would be much too confusing at the moment and would result in either a major fight or ripping each other's clothes off. The last option didn't seem too bad in her mind. Nevertheless, she was determined that she needed some coffee to get her brain in working order and to sort things out.

"Ron, you coming?" Justin asked.

Ron hadn't even got up. He was just sitting there, with his back towards the three of them. Now he moved his head from side to side to show that he wasn't coming.

"And why, if I may so kindly ask, are you not coming?" Justin asked, smiling so broadly that Hermione feared he would get a cramp.

"Need to take care of some paperwork." Came the reply and Hermione suppressed the urge to say that, she too, had some paperwork to take care of.

"Just a second ago you didn't seem too busy with the paperwork…" Colin teased.

Ron didn't answer and as not reacting was the best weapon against teasing, they left him so he could go and "get some work done in the library".

¤

Ron's head was only capable of producing unreasonable thoughts like: 'I'm in love with her!' and 'What was I thinking, not going to have another cup of coffee!' He shook his head, trying to get it to work properly again.

What had he been thinking? What had she been thinking? What had they been thinking? They were on a mission for God's sake! They were not supposed to go around kissing… They hadn't been going around kissing, now had they? Just that one unfortunate…arghhh…whom was he kidding… That one fortunate time in the hallway and now… The difference between the two was, that in the hallway, he could have claimed temporary insanity, but now… He had been a bit taken aback when he saw Hermione closing the space between them, but he never hesitated, never thought about the consequences…he hated to think that if Colin and Justin would have been a bit slower than they would have witnessed a bit spicier scene… He sighed.

Why had she been crying again? The drawing. He noticed he had taken it and her wand to the library with. He hesetated, but started to examine the picture more carefully.

Hermione looked just like she had when he had come to wake her up – moonlight playing on her face, her brown curls scattered on the pillow, head tuned slightly to the left. It had to be the same time he came in. The moonlight was so accurately in place that The Untouchable could have stood next to him while drawing it.

The drawing did tell them something, didn't it? It had to. When he was patrolling outside of Harry's room he could clearly see Hermione's and there had been no movement near her door. That meant their beloved loony could get from place to lace without, apparating, floo or the use of doors. What was he supposed to do with this knowledge? Okay…so the person knew his/her way round the house pretty well and possibly owned an invisibility cloak. The only person he knew owned one was Harry. Was Harry pulling their leg?

He would not, would not joke around with things like this, especially after all those years fearing Voldemort would attack Hogwarts.

He turned to the table and stared at the pile of the reports he yet had to fill in. It would be for the best if he started now. With that, he decided that two heads were better than one and he'd wait for Hermione to return.

¤

Colin could hardly believe it – Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger making out on the sofa. Well, that certainly was worth a picture and he had taken a few when they weren't watching…well, they were far too busy with each other to notice some silly little distractions like a guy flashing a camera at them. It was about time they got it out in the open, although judging by Hermione's reaction they hadn't planned on coming clean just yet – her interest in her toes was most probably caused by embarrassment and he didn't want to push her into telling them something she didn't want to. Colin thoroughly believed there was a time and place for everything and if she felt this wasn't the time and place to tell them about her and Ron, he let it be.

Justin, however, didn't seem too understanding towards Hermione and her feelings.

"So…Herms…You wanna tell me what we just witnessed back there?"

Hermione gritted her teeth – Herms and 'Mione were something Ron called her.

"To be quite honest with you…NO!" She put on a sweet smile and looked him straight in the eye.

"Oh come on! You were almost ripping each others clothes off and you deny the fact?"

"Firstly: We were not ripping each other's clothes off." _Although little was missing._ "Secondly: I am not denying the fact and thirdly: I don't think it's any of your business altogether." She was sincerely mad at Justin. What did he want? She hadn't had the time to ponder over it herself and large pieces of what happened were till wonderfully blurry to her.

"Just, just leave her alone, okay?" Colin defended her right to privacy and Hermione was thankful for it.

Just then it hit her that he was still their main suspect. She studied his face. No. He wasn't The Untouchable that was certain…so that left her with…all the other people in the house, but herself and Harry and Ron. So that left her with…Niles and Justin and Ginny. Surely not Ginny?

They had reached the dining room and Hermione thankfully poured herself a cup of strong black coffee, pondering over the events and realisations of the same morning in much welcomed solitary.

¤

Best wishes,

B


	22. Sucking out Brains

Chapter 22

Having figured who the prime suspect in her eyes was, Hermione headed back to her bedroom to change, and now deep in thought over what she thought she should tell Ron once she saw him. Should she a) throw her arms around his neck and continue where they left off or b) ignore what had happened?

She put on her jeans, one of her white button-down office shirts and headed downstairs. She stopped abruptly in he middle of the stairs because she realised firstly, that her wand was lost and secondly saw a couple kissing passionately in the living room. She realised, after a moment of staring at the couple in awe, that she must've left her wand in the library along with the drawing and put a hand to block the two from view as she passed them. That wasn't necessary however, since the fiery headed woman and the guy with the messy jet black hair were far too interested in sucking each others brains out through their mouths (commonly known as kissing) than somebody seeing or passing them. She reached the door of the library and then realised that her thoughts had been so busy with Harry and Ginny that she had forgot to think about her and Ron. Did they look the same when Justin and Colin walked in on them? No. It must've been worse as she was already in his lap and it must've seemed to the two that they were about to rip each others clothes off... which they were…at least, as much as she was embarrassed to admit it even to herself, she was very close to that… Concentrate Hermione! What are you going to say to him? Just act natural. If he says something about it, then you will too, if not…well then he'll just prove to be that thickheaded prat you always thought he was.

Her eyes fond Ron sitting at the table, examining the drawing, then one of the letters and closing his eyes.

"What are you doing?" She asked curiously.

"I am trying to imagine the person drawing this and writing those letters…That is really all I can come up with at the moment. He's left us with zero clues." Ron looked at the picture, then turned to Hermione. " You want to help me with something? I don't know where we should go from here actually, since the letters hardly give us any information besides Harry and dead occurring in the same sentence a whole lot. Psychological profile, maybe? I've heard Muggels have that done for that kind of folk, maybe we ought to give it a try?"

Hermione simply nodded and took a seat at the table, starting to read the letters once more.

Silently she cursed Ron. She was so angry that she couldn't even form proper sentences in her head._ That prat…what the hell…me…we…him…I wish he'd just… _And the Hermione we all know and love rose to power once again. **I was right. I was right after all. Snogging your boss is never good news.**

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It was late afternoon when Niles at last came and announced that he wished the both of them would attend lunch, he has so lovingly prepared, every once in a while. Ron got up from his reports. "Hermione you coming?"

_Oh so now it's Hermione!_ Nevertheless, she answered in a calm voice. "I'll be a few more minutes. I want to get this last paragraph down. You go ahead."

"Okay."

_Okay, so what if it was not true. She had quite a bit yet to write, but she could have done it later. She just didn't want to walk all the way to the dining room with Ron. It was not right! Why did he have to be so stubborn? Couldn't he just let his hair down?_ She smiled when she remembered where the phrase had come from. _At school it would have been her who needed the letting her hair down thing, but now it seemed to be Ron! The world was coming to an end! Really, Ron Weasly, The Ladiesman of Hogwarts had suddenly grown up and gotten all responsible…What had happened to the world the way she had known it? Next thing she knew, Harry'd be dying his hair blond and slicking it back like good old Draco used to. Okay, you will stop that image fro resurfacing!_

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Ron was walking to the dining room, pondering over whether the way he acted was right or wrong. His heart was telling him one and the thing he used to call his brain told him the other. So he had acted the way his brain had told him, but it was the right thing to do! Or was it? Over the years at Hogwarts he had listened to his heart and where had it gotten him? Nowhere. And then, right before the exams he took his brains advice for once and got to be second best after Hermione. Well, that was accomplishment, seeing as Hermione had studied like crazy, starting with the first year and had probably read even more books than Madam Pince and the whole of Hogwarts's teachers had altogether. He still failed to understand how he had got so many N.E.W.Ts. He hadn't almost done one piece of homework the whole year. Okay, he had, but he wasn't conscious at the moment, most probably or somebody had done it for him. Maybe one of his girlfriends.

He reached the dining room where the rest of the residents of the house were already having dinner, laughing and talking. He stood at the door for a moment, knowing that one of them was the person they were after but who was it? Okay, so Harry wasn't a suspect but the rest of them… His gaze fell on Gin who was sitting next to Harry. She had a devilish look on her face that Ron recognised from when she used to tease him about his crush on Hermione, which was of course purely fictional. Harry next to her was looking rather red and silent.

Gin? No. She had been crazy over Harry but when he had gone to the ball with Cho, she had been rather bitter and decided that the Great Harry Potter did not deserve all the time she was giving him and soon after realised that Harry and Ron were not the only males attending Hogwarts. That was all much to the dislike of one Ron Weasly, who had understood that after Ginny had given up on Harry, he didn't have the slightest clue on who she was dating as other Gryffs thought it best not to tell him. They found that the common room was nicer when the air wasn't thick with Bloody Hells! and who knows what else. It actually afforded them with some study and leisure time.

Next to Gin there were two empty seats which were obviously saved for himself and Hermione. Opposite Harry there was Justin. Justin? What would he have against Harry? He was that weird eccentric accountant type who made his living and was happy to tell everyone who wanted or bothered to listen that he worked for Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived and a famous seeker for England. Why would he want to kill Harry? He'd have absolutely nothing to talk about, making him even more boring, if possible, in the process.

And then there was Colin, his prime suspect, sitting right next to Justin, occasionally glancing angrily towards the poor man. Okay, so maybe he had misread his facial impression, because a second later he burst out laughing with the rest of the people, after Justin had said something funny.

"… You should have been there. It was…indescribable. I don't think Hermione has moved so fast in her life. I swear that when she got up, I thought she was moving at light speed…" Justin said, almost choking with laughter.

All of them roared with laughter and Ron took a step back, recognising a slightly similar happening from the same morning. He decided that he would stand there for a few more minutes, just to check out the rest of them…who were Colin and Niles. The conversation however cut in again and he was forced to listen some more.

"...And Ron?" Harry managed before he broke into new fits of laughter.

"He was so red in the face that it showed from behind. He never got up. I think the things Hermione had done to him gave him jelly legs and he just sat there, not looking at us. He didn't even move."

They laughed once more.

"And then I used that 'whispering in each other's mouth' thing and well… you can imagine…"

"What?" Ginny squeaked. "She sent some old, unliftable, very painful curse towards you that you had to duck?" She giggled softly.

That was it! He was not taking it any longer! But he did want to know what Colin and Justin thought of the whole display, didn't he? Yes he did. So he clenched his fists and stayed quiet.

"You know," Colin started, "when you first told us about that whispering thing, I never believed you, but seeing the effect that it had on Hermione…and Ron's neck seemed a bit affected by the comment also, if I do recall correctly," he added as an afterthought, "I just have to believe. I don't think I have ever seen anybody blush that much. They did look like tomatoes on fire." The statement was followed with more laughter.

Then Niles added: "I told them that dinner was being served about fifteen minutes ago…I wonder what's keeping them?"

Oh the rage that was flowing through the veins of Ronald Weasly at that moment! He forced a smile and walked in casually, as if he had just arrived and heard nothing.

"What's funny?"

The room was filled with a deadly silence. If a needle would have been dropped on the table, it would have sounded like a sword had hit the surface of it.

Suddenly Harry broke the silence, unable to keep from laughing. "Oh… Colin was just telling us a funny bit of a story…about his childhood..."

"Aha…I see." Ron said stiffly, as he sat down and the people around the table started talking again.

After thirty minutes of sufreing through a fairly normal meal, Niles stood up and announced that he was going to clean the table. In a few minutes Justin, then Colin and finally Harry and Ginny, who left, hand in hand followed his leaving. Ron was left to eat alone and wait for Hermione, who never turned up. Ron decided that she had either forgotten herself writing or was too embarrassed to attend with everybody else there.

Ron walked to the library, only to find that the fire in the fireplace was now slowly fading away and Hermione's papers and quill were still scattered on the table. Probably wanted to get to sleep, he thought to himself and decided that he was in order for some sleep before he went out to patrol.

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_B _


	23. Double potions first

Chapter 23

Ron was patrolling outside of Harry's room, when The Boy Who Lived exited his sister's room.

Ron smirked at the sight and said in a rather Snape-ish voice. "Harry Potter! Where do you think you are going?"

"Ron! Don't do that! I thought you were not patrolling, since no letters have come in and everything?"

"Yes, well, just taking precautions."

Good one Weasly. Lie to your best friend.

What else could he do? Harry'd get all self-sacrificing and get himself killed. That was what the entire world needed! Really! The Wizarding World was just recovering from all the Voldemort-years and liked to look towards Harry like he was a strange icon of the picture-perfect life with loads of money, beautiful wife and a few little toddlers running around in the back yard. Truth be told - he was not. He did have loads of money but he was missing the toddlers and the wife. But if he kept sneaking into Ginnys room, he might just become a little too perfect.

"Harry, dear! Would you like to explain what you were doing in my little sisters room?" He smiled a pleasant smile to go with it.

"Well… I was kind of hoping to spare you the gross details, but if you insist…" Harry was obviously trying to fight back laughter.

Ron didn't think he was doing a very good job at it so he continued as if he were deaf. "Actually… You could have informed Hermione or me… We kind of hold ourselves responsible if something happens to you. What do you think?"

"Sorry. I just thought I'd spare you of the agony. You seemed mentally unstable that other night when you and Hermione HAPPPENED to…"

"I get the point! Were you in Ginny's room last night?" Ron just then acknowledged the fact that maybe The Untouchable went to Harry's room, but couldn't find him, so instead he went to Hermiones. Ron made a mental note to go see if she was okay after he was finished with interrogating Harry.

"Do you promise to fight the urge to kill me?"

" I am doing that as we speak and will take that as a yes." He swore under his breath and started pacing.

"Ron. What's wrong?" Harry had been friends with him too long not to notice that something was awfully out of place here.

"Nothing, nothing. Do you promise to go to sleep, to not exit this room?" Ron seemed rather worried as he pulled his hand through his red hair and looked Harry in the eye.

"No, not until you tell me what is the matter!" Harry was slightly irritated that his best friend didn't even trust him enough to tell him things that affected his own life.

"Will you just do it? I'm too worried about you and Ginny and Hermione at the moment to be having this stupid talk! Go to your room!" That sounded awfully motherly, but said everything he meant to say.

"Stop it! I want to know what's going on here and you are going to tell me!"

"The hell I am!" He turned round and started pacing again. Suddenly Harry's hand landed on his shoulder. "I think we are going to have to have a serious talk."

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Harry had practically dragged him down to the kitchen and was now making coffee, seeing as Ron's eyelids were drooping, now that he was in the warm kitchen instead of the airy corridor.

"Where would you like to start?" Harry asked him and Ron felt as if his insides were torn apart. He had two choices, one: tell Harry the truth and get it over with and two: lie. He chose the last one.

"I don't know what you are talking about." He answered simply and took a sip of his coffee.

"Ron there are about two things you are totally rubbish at in this fair world. One is showing your feelings towards Hermione and the other one is lying so why don't you just tell me what happened from the very moment you got here, okay?"

Ron sighed, took another sip of his coffee and began: "Well, I Apparated here from the office and as it turned out I was not the only one in the living room. Hermione had too, just arrived and we kind of arrived on each other. Then out came that butler of yours, he, by the way, seemed a little scared of us and went to get you… The story is going to be awful long, you sure you wanna hear it?" Ron was hoping harry was feeling tired and was willing to go off to bed.

"I've got all night." Harry smiled.

"Are you sure Gin won't miss you?" Last resort, Ron thought.

Harry burst out laughing. "Now I'm sure I want to hear it! A few days ago you almost took my head off for playing chess with her, now you're asking me if I am sure she isn't going to miss me?"

"I, on the other hand, am sure you did a bit more than play chess with her!" Ron growled at his best friend.

"No we didn't… if you don't want to tell me the whole story, juts skip to the part you two started lying to me!" The light mood was gone and Harry was glaring at him openly.

"We never lied to you, we just bended the arm of the truth a bit."

_/----/_

Ron tells Harry the story 

_/----/_

"That's it. Now you are no longer kept in the dark about anything. Happy now?"

"Happier than I was not knowing. So let me get this straight…One of the people I know and trust within these walls, living, eating, sleeping and breathing here and possibly even getting paid to do it is a sick-minded freak?"

"For the fifth time: yes!" Ron rubbed the bridge of his nose and continued, feeling rather good that he now had someone else besides Hermione to share the secret with. Not that Hermione was bad at keeping secrets or anything, but they recently seemed to have all that tension between them.

" I am worried about 'Mione and Ginny, so I was thinking to get them to safety first thing tomorrow morning." Ron did look worried with dark circles under his eyes; but then again, they had been there before he arrived. He really did need to get outside more.

"… And when we've got them somewhere far and away from here, we can take on the slimy creature. What do you think?"

"Ginny –maybe, with a lot of persuasion, but Hermione…"

"I know, she can be stubborn, but we could always stupefy her…"

"And live in the process? I hardly think so."

"I'll talk to her, she has to listen to her boss…" Ron trailed away.

"You are her boss?" Harry had to have had a laughing cramp that very second.

"What?" Ron demanded. "So what?"

"And she actually takes orders from you? I mean…without cursing you or anything?"

"Well, yeah. Why is that so hard to believe?" Ron asked incredulously but Harry just kept laughing.

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A new morning dawned and a new day began in the house (mansion) of Harry Potter. Since they had just now turned in, Ron only changed his clothes and headed down to breakfast, full of determination to get Hermione and Ginny to safety, no matter what the costs. He whistled as he passed Hermiones door and banged his fist on the surface a few times, yelling 'rise and shine beautiful', not wanting to be the one to go in and wake her. He was not sure what he would do if she was wearing that little piece of clothing she called a night-gown again.

He arrived at the table where only Ginny and Harry were sitting, said 'good morning' to them and sat down, waiting mainly for Hermione. It was Colin who arrived next, looking a little beat and Justin a few minutes after him, perfectly ironed robes billowing behind him as he greeted them with a 'Good morning to everyone my friends!'

Ron actually had to admit that Justin had developed some humanity around him. Back in school he had always thought that the poor fellow was rather spineless and being spineless never got you on the 'nice, friendly and respectful people list' when speaking of Ron Weasly. For example Hermione. He had hated her when they first got to school and had grown to like her a lot. Okay…maybe it was more than like…he didn't dare to say love, he was ever very careful with that simple word. Not with family, no doubt he loved them, but with girls. With Hermione especially. She was his best friend after Harry, although he was not sure how he would introduce her if he was to present her to somebody. He would still say friend. They had never said anything about being more than friends and as much as he hated to admit it he was too afraid to even think of talking about it.

How did it just happen that he was thinking about Justin and ended up thinking about Hermione? That was utterly strange. He didn't want to overload his brain with more strange things than it already housed at the moment and there were plenty. He was to tell Hermione about their little plan and present it in a way she would accept and get her out of harms way. Harry would tell Ginny. His train of thoughts was so rudely stopped by the station manager Justin.

"Shall we begin? I believe Hermione is running late and I wouldn't wonder after those noises from Ron's room last night…" All of them laughed, but Ron.

Our redheaded hero hissed through his clenched teeth.

"Me. And. 'Mione. Did. Not. Spend. The. Night. In. My. Room!"

"Oh so it was her room?" Justin asked rather amused.

The guy was really starting to bug him and that was never a good sign. "On the contrary to what you might think, I never saw Hermione again after leaving the library."

Ron was staring straight at Justin, angry gleam in his eyes.

"Don't bother Sir," Niles cut in, "they obviously took care of the unfinished business in the library." He sent Ron a friendly smirk to go with it.

Ron looked at each and every one of them and thought it would just be easier to curse all of them and not bother with looking for the right loony. His ears felt like they were on fire and he almost felt his hand itching to grab his wand. He would not do it. He would patiently wait for the breakfast to end and then tell Hermione the plan. Thinking about Hermione, where was she anyway? She had slept late the other mornings, but never this much. He would go and wake her when the breakfast was over if she didn't turn up. Maybe she just didn't want to see Colin and Justin…and of course the rest of the bunch who would ruthlessly make fun of her and him and the library accident…

What had he been thinking? He had worked with other female agents before and it had never been a problem for him. He just did not, DID NOT mix business with pleasure. That was the policy he lived by but it didn't seem to work with Hermione. From the first time they had had a close contact…which happened to be in the first five seconds he entered the house…he had not been able to think straight. If, in normal circumstances, meaning with anyone else, he would have thought that the situation was embarrassing, then with Hermione… His first thought had been: I want to kiss her. Was that normal?

His other part of the brain answered him_: Yes Ron that is normal, especially when you have been in love with her since god knows when!_

**No! Me and 'Mione are friends. **

Ron finished his coffee and looked up to see that he was alone, sitting at the table with a pot of coffee and nothing else. He wondered if he seemed a bit out of his normal self. No. He probably looked slightly insane.

He took his unfinished coffee with him and headed towards the stairs with every intention to act cool and professional whilst waking up his FRIEND who happened to look too sexy in an overly short night-gown. He climbed the stairs and reached her room. He knocked softly. "Hermione? Are you up?"

No answer.

"Hermione? Breakfast's ready!"

Nothing. It was as if he was talking to himself.

"Hermione! We're late and we've got Potions first!" He yelled.

Everything was silent. Ron decided that something had to be wrong. Being late for double Potions would have woken up the dead so if she was still drifting somewhere in between of dream world and reality she had to be seriously jaded or crazy.

Ron pushed the door open and walked in. Her bed was made; the room was as tidy as ever with the only remotely untidy thing being her night -gown tossed carelessly on the bed. The bed had either never been slept in or had been made early. He called out her name once more and then hurried downstairs to the library. She probably just wanted some early work done and forgot herself with the letters.

The library was as Ron had left it from the previous night, not a thing had been moved. He flicked his wand and muttered something under his breath sending up a brilliant ball light.

If he had been worried before then now, he was panicking and looking around frantically, hoping to find her in impossible places like under the table and on the mantelpiece. He decided to keep his head cool and think about it. Where could she be? A terrible suspicion rose in the back of his mind, but he decided to ignore it and ran to find Harry.

Ron found him on the second floor, in his sister's room, talking to her. She nodded her head and hugged him wordlessly. Then the both of them noticed him, standing in the doorway.

" It's Hermione. She's gone. " Ron panted out.

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A/N: Reviews are greatly appreciated.


	24. Blood on the Moon

Chapter 24

" It's Hermione. She's gone. " Ron panted out.

He waved his wand and Ginny's suitcases packed themselves. He looked around the room and then at Ginny who was openly gaping at him.

"Ronald. What do you think you are doing?" she asked in a deadly calm voice.

"I am packing your suitcases and then kicking your ass the bloody hell out of this house, that's what I'm doing."

Ginny looked as if she was about to explode, but it seemed to Harry that Ron found nothing even remotely intimidating about that and continued.

"I know Harry can take care of himself and well, me… I can take care of myself as well…" right there he was cut short by Ginny.

"You? Take care of yourself? Ha. That's a first! You don't even have a job for all we know. I don't care that you got just as many points in Charms and DADA as Hermione did and for Merlin's sake, were best in Divination! I still to this day wonder how you pulled that stunt off but I bet you haven't even cast a slightly harmful spell after that slug-thing you did to Malfoy and well, I hardly think that's going to do for that freak of yours. To conclude it all I think that you sending me away is just a load of bullocks and that's the end of it. I am…"

"_Petrificus Totalus." _Ron said lazily and Harry caught Ginny as she fell backwards. "You are going. I DO have a job and I DO know other slightly harmful spells to cast on someone who bugs the Hell out of me with opening their mouth. Today it happened to be you. Happening to be my sister saved you...and the fact that and mom would probably kill me if I did something to you... I am NOT in the mood of arguing with you so you will shut the fuck up and go! Understood!" Ron bellowed the last word out and turned to the window pulling his hand through his hair. He continued in a well-trained calm voice. "Harry, give her one of your brooms."

Harry merely nodded and _Accio_d one for her while Ron was talking to Ginny once again. "You WILL take this broom, fly to London, to Diagon Alley. You WILL go to the Ministry and you will tell them that we need help ASAP. Got it? Good."

Harry lifted the spell and Ginny spoke in a rather squeaky voice, obviously startled by her brother's sudden behavioural change. "Why should they believe me? I mean… I know Harry's name would do anything anywhere, but…"

" Just go to the seventh clerk there and tell them, that it's code red at Harry's house and that I sent you, okay?"

Ginny nodded, kissed Harry on the cheek and sent a little frightened look in Ron's direction before hugging him and flying away.

¤

The both of them watched her fly away and disappear in the morning mist, knowing full well, that she might not be back in time. Ron was the first to recover.

"Okay. We have to come up with some tactic and a Hell of a clever plan." He looked ten years older to Harry, than he really was when he was trying to make up an effective and safe plan. "Bloody Hell, Harry! I should have sent you away with her! You are what He wants, not me! Goddamn it!"

"Oh that's just a load of… crap! You know full well, that I would have never left knowing you would stay here to battle Him! With Hermione gone, you'd be all alone with no back up… What do you think happened to her? I mean…. Where could she have gone?"

"She has not gone anywhere. She's right here, in this house!" Ron growled, turning to face the window.

"She might have gone to fetch back up…"

"She did not! She would have told me if she were doing anything of the sort! She had no reason to fetch back up! Everything had been so quiet the past few days…too quiet… I should have never left her alone yesterday… I came to dinner and she was still writing something…finishing the last paragraph, she said… She vanished right after I left…no one has seen her since… Fuck!" He paced the room a few times and all the while Harry was thinking whether his mental situation was something to be worried about. The Boy Who Lived was working feverishly on somewhere Hermione might have gone, something logical, yet so unimportant that Ron might have missed. He failed. Ron would have searched the end of the World if he had to and probably would if he didn't say something logical sometime soon.

"She still has to be here then." That was a stupid conclusion to make on his part.

"Yes. Very good! Potter has finally caught up with me here! Wonderful! Harry, you've just made my day!" Ronnish sarcasm with anger and worry. A real delicacy.

Ron stopped his pacing abruptly. "Harry, you take her room, I'll go to the library."

"Don't you think it's smarter we stick together? I mean there's someone here, and if he gets you or me…"

"Fine. Room, then library. Let's go!"

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Hermione's room looked just like it had earlier in the morning when he had looked in. Nothing had been moved, or if it had, then it wasn't by any chance misplaced. Everything neat and ordered – just the way she liked it. Except for her night-gown. It had been tossed carelessly on the foot of the bed. It's folds looked exactly the way they had, just as if she had just dropped it there and would be back any second to neatly put it away. But she wasn't coming, was she? She was somewhere, waiting to be found.

Ron did not 100 support Harry's flash-idea. She could have easily been moved during the time he and Harry had been sitting in the kitchen or any other time during the night. A few simple spells and some basic use of wand would do it. One thing he knew was that he was not leaving this house without knowing who the psycho really was… if he had done something to her….even touched a hair in her bunch of locks he would… would …

Harry was still trying to find something. He looked frantically around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of something unusual, anything unusual, but there was nothing. The room looked as if the House Elves had just tidied it to perfection and left. He looked towards his best friend who he hoped had seen something that would help them, but he was simply sitting on the edge of her bed, flicking his wand at something visible only to him alone. As soon as Harry had opened his mouth to tell him that they should head towards the library, Ron got up and exited the room, muttering something under his breath.

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Their journey to the library was the quietest ever. Ron had always had something to say about libraries. They either smelled bad or had no pretty chicks to hit on, they were either too dark or too educational and full of things he said they would never need in their life. Well, this time, it was different. Ron was walking in front as fast as he could, leaving a few inches shorter Harry, behind him. He entered the temple of knowledge at a fast pace and muttered a few indications under his breath to light the torches and the fire in the fireplace. He then stood still in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do next. He stood and studied his surroundings for a few moments before walking to the table.

"The documents are scattered. 'Mione put them in piles yesterday and now they are scattered. Damn it! I should have checked on her but I was too damn proud and ashamed to come back!" He let out a string of words not appropriate to the ears of anyone who likes to think of themselves as sophisticated and polite people and sat down at the table. Harry stood still and then moved to help him. Soon the piles stood as they had stood the night before and the sun had fallen behind the horizon. During that afternoon they had hardly spoken two words and those too concerned the pages of various reports. About an hour ago Ron had A_ccio_d himself a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky and had been gulping it down like water ever since. Harry dared to turn his eyes on his oldest and best of friends who had just poured himself another shot. He gulped it down and looked Harry in the eye.

"Listen to me. I want you to do exactly what I tell you, understood?"

Harry nodded in response.

"I am going to put the Fidelius on you and you are going to accept the fact that you are invisible to the rest of the world for a while. I am going to be the secret keeper. The only person I would tell in this fair world is 'Mione and I don't think she will be posing a threat… Then I am going to search this house inside, outside, forwards and backwards until I find her and that nice friend of our's… Where is the safest room in the house?"

"Mine, I guess." Harry thought best not to argue with Ron. He was slightly drunk and devastated about Hermione. The two of those reasons did not make a good mix.

"Good. Okay… Let's do it, let's go." He grabbed the bottle to assist him with the spell and they left for Harry's room.

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Ron put Harry under the Fidelius charm, promising not to forget about him once he had completed his mission and found Hermione. Harry was sure he would spend a day or two longer in that room of his than necessary.

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It was well after midnight when Ron finally awoke. He was sitting in front of the radiating red coal in the fireplace, the empty bottle of whisky still in his hand. He was not sure when he had fallen asleep, but now it had to be dark outside. He got up and pulled aside the thick curtains covering the windows and blocking the view to the garden. The full moon was high above the house, covering the branches of the trees with a silvery light and giving the grass an unearthly look. The night would have been perfectly beautiful if there hadn't been that almost invisible red glow around the great silvery sphere. 'Blood on the moon', Ron thought. This wasn't good. It was one of the Death omens. 'Mione. He rubbed his eyes to see if the red glow he thought he saw was a delusion caused by alcohol, but once he opened his eyes he saw it still. It was even clearer than it had been before, glowing almost as evilly as the Mark of Death Eaters during the Quiddich World Cup. Of course he had seen the mark again and again later on as Voldemort rose but he still vividly remembered the first time he had seen it glow high above unnatural glow of green. The red around the moon was getting stronger and stronger by the second. Ron stepped back and let the curtains fall back, covering the back yard and hiding the moon.

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End file.
